{"id":1860,"date":"2009-01-09T12:00:06","date_gmt":"2009-01-09T16:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/batesviews.net\/?p=1860"},"modified":"2018-06-04T09:31:05","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T13:31:05","slug":"pristine-isnt-the-dream-says-geologist-matt-grove-94","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2009\/01\/09\/pristine-isnt-the-dream-says-geologist-matt-grove-94\/","title":{"rendered":"Pristine isn&#039;t the dream, says geologist Matt Grove &#039;94"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href='https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2009\/01\/alumni-grove94.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"135\" height=\"185\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2009\/01\/alumni-grove94.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium alignright\" alt=\"Matthew Grove &#039;94\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Early in the 1900s, two manufacturing plants in Arlington, Mass., dumped their chemical waste out back, which polluted a town-owned pond, later filled to create the high school football field.<\/p>\n<p>The town became aware of the contamination in the 1990s but didn&#8217;t get money to clean up the site until the 2000s.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s when environmental consultant Matt Grove &#8217;94 and his team from the firm <a href=\"http:\/\/www.brownandcaldwell.com\/\">Brown and Caldwell<\/a> went to work.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>First, the contamination was excavated and consolidated. &#8220;We installed a cap of plastic and soil layers,&#8221; explains Grove. &#8220;And we treated the groundwater with a chemical designed to stimulate bioactivity.&#8221; As microbes grow and prosper, they create soil conditions that immobilize the contamination. New playing fields were installed over the capped portions of the property. (See aerial images <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/images\/ocr\/faces\/Matt-Grove-94-Work-Progress-082404.jpg\">during the project<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/images\/ocr\/faces\/Matt-Grove-94-finished-project-12-05.jpg\">after completion<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>The Arlington project illustrates the changing approach to environmental cleanups. &#8220;The idea is that it&#8217;s not feasible to clean up a site to pristine conditions,&#8221; Grove explains. &#8220;Instead, you reduce contamination to a point where the site can be deemed safe for certain uses.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Grove, a biology and geology major at Bates who earned a Ph.D. in geology at Duke, believes that &#8220;there&#8217;s a broader acceptance of changing the way things are done to get people to be more environmentally conscious. It takes a bit of force sometimes, but I think we&#8217;re moving toward a better place in terms of the environment and the care we&#8217;re taking of it.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>arly in the 1900s, two manufacturing plants in Arlington, Mass., dumped their chemical waste out back, which polluted a town-owned pond, later filled to create the high school football field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[7,232,217],"tags":[1690,10841],"class_list":["post-1860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni","category-environment-sustainability","category-science-technology","tag-biology","tag-geology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1860"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89098,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1860\/revisions\/89098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}