Semester
Summer
Date of Graduation
2008
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MS
College
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Chemistry
Committee Chair
Suzanne C. Bell.
Abstract
The West Virginia Maneuver Area includes locations within the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area, the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Recreation Area, and private land holdings in Grant, Randolph, and Tucker counties of West Virginia. Between 1943 and 1944, the military trained troops in a 50,000 acre area which is now the Dolly Sods Wilderness area. This training was conducted by the U.S. Department of the Army and involved artillery and mortar training for troops destined for World War II combat in the mountains of Italy. This project focused on characterization and investigation of the environmental contamination resulting from military ordnance existing within areas of the West Virginia Maneuver Area, including the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area -- North, Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge, and private land holdings in Canaan Valley, West Virginia. Field sampling campaigns were performed in July and August 2007. Field sampling procedures followed USEPA Method 8330b multi-increment sampling. Concentrations of explosive residues and their degradation products are reported for soils retrieved from these areas and analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled with UV-vis detection. The combination of RDX/HMX was found to be present in soils on the surface and to a depth of at least 20.3 cm (8 in.) in this research.
Recommended Citation
Aylor, Amy Richmond, "Environmental forensics for characterization of unexploded ordnance in soils at the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area" (2008). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 2604.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/2604