Environmental forensics for characterization of unexploded ordnance in soils at the Dolly Sods Wilderness Area

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

Monitoring compositional changes of the lipid fraction of fingermark residues deposited on paper during storage

Characterising the changes in fingermark composition as a function of time is of great value for improving fingermark detection capabilities by understanding the processes and circumstances under which target compounds become degraded. In this study, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was used to monitor relative changes in the lipids from latent fingermarks over 28 days. Principal component analysis of the relative composition of 15 lipids in fingermarks showed that fingermark age was a significant contributor to the variability observed in the data, but that inter-donor variability was also significant. This was attributed principally to changes in the relative amounts of squalene, which rapidly decreased in the fingermarks. It was also observed, however, that most fingermarks exhibited relatively small changes in composition during the first seven days, followed by more rapid changes up to 28 days. Significant inter-donor variation of both initial fingermark composition and the rates and nature of loss processes was observed, which was reflected in the relative projection of samples from different donors. Finally, samples stored with no exposure to light or airflow for 28 days were projected significantly closer to the samples analysed on the day of deposition than those exposed to light, due to the reduced photodegradation rate of squalene