School of Civil & Environmental Engineering ES&T Building
311 Ferst Drive NW
Atlanta GA 30313
phone: (404) 376 5194
United States Geological Survey
3039 Amwiler Road, Suite 130
Atlanta GA 30360
phone: (770) 903-9131
fax: (770) 903-9199
Education:
Bachelors in Civil Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology, 1999
Masters of Science
Civil Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology, 2001
Ph.D. Candidate in Environmental Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology, 2002 - present
Since Summer 2000, I have been working, as an employee of the U.S. Geological Survey, to better understand ground-water and contaminant transport in a trichloroethene-contaminated fractured crystalline rock system. My interest in the geomicrobiology of such systems has contributed to my research interests as a Ph.D. candidate at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
I am currently researching relationships between chlororespiring microbial populations, biogeochemistry, and hydraulic properties within discrete, straddle packer-isolated fractures at depth. Of particular interest are Dehalococcoides (Dhc.) species, capable of complete reductive dechlorination of chlorinated ethenes (TCE and daughter products: cis 1,2-dichloroethene and vinyl chloride) to ethene, and the functional genes they produce. My future research, using the progenitor culture of BDI(TM) Inoculum, will investigate the characteristics and performance of a biobarrier established within a hydraulically-isolated fracture zone. Specifically, characteristics include the transport and colonization of injected inoculum. This will be assessed using push-pull tracer tests with a tracer suite including both reactive and conservative tracers. Biobarrier performance will be evaluated using three lines of time-series evidence: chlroinated ethene concentrations, Dhc. species and functional genes, and stable isotope analyses. My goal is to use this information collected from a single fracture zone to expand to multi-borehole bioaugmentation studies in discrete fractures.
Publications:
Gonthier, G.J., and Waddell, J.P., 2001, Trichloroethene presence in Rottenwood Creek near Air Force Plant 6, Marietta, Georgia, Summer 2000: in Hatcher, K.J., ed., Proceedings of the 2001 Georgia Water Resources Conference, Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, p. 586-589.
Waddell, J.P., Pennell, K.D., and Loeffler, F.E., 2002, Microbial study on chloroethene biodegradation within Rottenwood Creek sediments affected by low-flow ground-water discharge: in Abstracts of Tenth Annual Davis S. Snipes / Clemson Hydrogeology Symposium, April 18, Clemson, SC, p. 36-45.
Waddell, J.P., and Mayer, G.C., 2003, Effects of Fenton's Reagent and potassium permanganate applications on indigenous subsurface microbiota: A literature review: in Hatcher, K.J., ed., Proceedings of the 2003 Georgia Water Resources Conference, April 23-24, University of Georgia, Athens, GA.