Presenting remediation solutions

Faculty and students across the Tufts School of Engineering are committed to bettering the environment and improving human health. Part-time lecturer Paul Dombrowski of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering takes on these important goals through his work in remediation, which is the process of removing contaminants from water and soil.

Dombrowski recently attended the Association for Environmental Health and Sciences Foundation (AEHS) Annual International Conference on Soils, Sediments, Water, and Energy where he made several presentations about remediation. His first presentation, titled “Bundling Complementary Technologies for Better Remediation Solutions,” was part of a session about improving remediation through bundling complementary technologies. During a later session about innovations in the field of remediation, Dombrowski delivered a presentation titled “Permeable Reactive Barriers: Non-Traditional Technology to Reduce Nitrogen Flux to Coastal Waterways,” about septic system management strategies on Cape Cod. Amy Hunter, EG17, contributed to the scholarship for this presentation. A poster titled “Enhanced Reductive Dechlorination in Bedrock with Long Term Monitoring” described the process of treating high concentrations of chlorinated solvents within bedrock groundwater. Paul also is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the conference.

At Tufts, Dombrowski teaches a senior design elective and mentors senior capstone projects. His professional interests and research focuses on improving the design and implementation of in-situ groundwater and soil remediation, including permeable reactive barriers for treatment of large groundwater plumes, treatment solutions for emerging contaminants, and integrating ways to combine chemical remediation and bioremediation. Beyond Tufts, Dombrowski works as a senior remediation engineer at ISOTEC Remediation Technologies, an environmental firm focused on soil and groundwater remediation.