Boston Harbor Navigation Improvement and Berth Dredging Project, Boston, Massachusetts, Confidential Client, Analyst.
Metals analyses (sea water samples) underwent membrane filtration under Class 100 clean conditions, microwave digestion and chelation extraction-preconcentration followed by analysis by either graphite furnace absorption (GFAA) spectroscopy or inductively coupled argon plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP AES).  Arsenic was analyzed by hydride generation atomic absorption and mercury by atomic absorption with gold amalgamation preconcentration utilizing flow injection techniques.

Aquatic Risk Assessment Site, Eastern, Massachusetts, Confidential Client, Analyst.
Surface water metals were sampled and analyzed using “clean” techniques, i.e. Class 100 clean hood conditions, according to Method 1669.  Additional water analyses included cyanide, hexavalent chromium, total suspended solids and hardness. Sediments were analyzed for metals, physiologically available cyanide (PAC), hexavalent chromium and the acid volatile sulfide/simultaneously extractable metals (AVS/SEM).

DAMOS Program Sediment Characterization, Long Island Sound, New York, Confidential Client, Analyst.
Analyses included low-level PAHs by GC/MS-SIM, organochloride pesticides, PCB Aroclors, metals and TOC.  Results have been reported on a 28-day turnaround time in hard copy and an electronic data deliverable.

Naval Air Station.  South Weymouth, Massachusetts, Confidential Client, Analyst.
Analyses of TCL VOC, SVOC and Pesticide/PCB, TAL Metals and waste characterization.  In addition, MADEP Methods for VPH/EPH, lead, copper and PCB results with 72-hour turnaround time were required.

New Bedford Harbor - Acushnet River, New Bedford, Massachusetts, Confidential Client, Analyst.
Analyzed saline water and sediments from the Acushnet River for PCB congeners and trace metals.  Seawater analyses required filtering to separate dissolved and particulate fraction, chelate extraction/preconcentration of the dissolved fraction, and analysis by either furnace atmic absorption (GFAA) spectroscopy or inductively coupled argon plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES).

Publications and Presentations

Wallace, G.T., C. Kraforst, L.C. Pitts, J. Shine, M. Studer, and C. Bollinger.  1991.  “Assessment of the Chemical Composition of the Fox Point CSO Effluent and Associated Subtidal and Intertidal Environments:  Analysis of CSO Effluents, Surficial Sediments and Water Column Samples for Trace Metals Prior to CSO Modification.”  Final report for the Massachusetts DEP.

Wallace, G.T., R. Eganhouse, L.C. Pitts, and B. Gould.  1988.  “Analysis of Contaminants in Marine Resources.”  Final report for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Water Pollution Control, Contract 85-18.

Pitts, L.C. and G.T. Wallace.  1994.  “Lead Deposition in the Shell of the Bivalve, Mya arenaria:  An Indicator of Dissolved Lead in Seawater.”  Estuarine Coastal Shelf Science 39:93-104.

Abraham, K.M. and L.C. Pitts.  1983.  “Reaction at the Anode During Storage of Partially Discharged Li/SO₂ Cells.”  J. Electro. Chem. Soc., 7,1618-1620.