NGWA.org Ground Water Monitoring & Remediation 31, no. 3/ Summer 2011 37

Editorial

© 2011, The Author(s)Ground Water Monitoring & Remediation © 2011, National Ground Water Association.

Looking Back and AheadBrent P. Stafford, Shell Global Solutions (US) Inc., 3333 Highway 6 S; Houston, TX 77210, USA

Just over decade ago, predic-tions on the impact of ethanol-blended fuels to aquifers were based mostly on the strikingly different physical-chemical properties of ethanol compared to that of gasoline hydrocar-bons and oxygenates such as MTBE (Rice 2001; Powers et al. 2001). Since that time, many recent studies have sought out to confi rm prior predictions and have improved our under-standing of the fate and trans-port of ethanol and gasoline constituents in blended fuels. The articles in this special issue bring together experi-mental studies and long-term site investigations that build on the past decade of research into ethanol blended fuels and biodegradation of biodie-sel. Notable in the effort for improved understanding are the contributions from The American Petroleum Institute’s Soil and Groundwater Techni-cal Group (SGTG) who have

been instrumental in initiating and supporting research to-wards identifying differences between conventional- and bio-fuel behavior and appropri-ate site characterization and management. Also notable is the recent contribution from the Interstate Technology Regula-tory Council (ITRC) Biofuels team who are approaching the release of their report entitled “Biofuels: Release Preven-tion, Environmental Behavior, and Remediation”. The ITRC Biofuels Team consists mostly of state environmental person-nel with contributions by a few academic experts and industry representatives. The report, intended as guidance for stake-holders, includes insight on biofuel release scenarios, fate and transport, site characteriza-tion and management. Results from the past decade of key studies (including several from this issue) have been reviewed and the collective learnings

presented in a clear and use-ful way. As you will fi nd in the following articles and the ITRC report, our understanding of the fate and transport of biofuels has signifi cantly improved through the last decade of experimen-tal studies and long-term site investigations. However, in this endeavor to answer questions, new attributes and concerns that may infl uence site management decisions have been identifi ed. As such, we should expect a greater presence of technical articles in the published literature on the characterization, monitor-ing, and remediation of current and next generation biofuels.

ReferencesRice, D.W. 2001. Health and Environmental

Assessment of the Use of ethanol as a Fuel Oxygenate, Volume IV: Potential Ground and Surface Water Impacts: UCRL-AR-135949.

Powers, S.E., D. Rice, B. Dooher, and P. J. J. Alvarez. 2001. Will ethanol-blended gasoline affect groundwater quality? Environmental Science and Technology 35(1): 24A–30A.