Environmental Behavior and Fate of Explosives in Groundwater from the Milan Army Ammunition Plant in Aquatic and Wetland Plants. Fate of TNT and RDX

The present study was performed to elucidate the environmental behavior and fate of TNT and RDX in aquatic and wetland plants collected from a field-scale wetland demonstration deployed at Milan Army Ammunition Plant for removal of explosives fro groundwater. The study had three objectives: (1) To establish the physiological capacity of plants to absorb and transport TNT or RDX from explosives contaminated groundwater in the absence of substrates and their sorptive activities; (2) To quantify partitioning of TNT and RDX between plant portions; and (3) To establish the short-term chemical fate of TNT and RDX in plant tissues of these species. Substrates in which these plants were rooted at the Milan field site (sediment, gravel) were also incubated without plants to investigate sorptive activities, and to evaluate microbial/chemical transformation of TNT and RDX that may affect the explosives availability to plants.