Flexible remediation design lowers total cost
Most groundwater remediation systems are built to operate for many years. Predicting time to cleanup is difficult due to unforeseeable problems and changes in underground conditions. As a result, many treatment systems tend to be over-designed, with multiple built-in safety factors and excessive capital costs. Total time in operation also is unnecessarily long because upfront assumptions often fail to match future realities. A Superfund site remediation in Arizona illustrates how a flexible, ongoing design approach can significantly reduce life cycle costs. The site is a municipal airport where degreasing activities from the 1940s through the 1970s left trichloroethylene (TCE) in the soil and in two aquifers beneath the site. The soil is being remediated in five areas, representing approximately 10 acres. The upper aquifer plume covers approximately 400 acres, and the two lower aquifer plumes cover 10 and 30 acres. The cleanup involves extraction of groundwater in a pump-and-treat system of 16 extraction wells, followed by treatment with an air stripper for the upper aquifer and liquid-phase high-pressure carbon on the lower aquifer. The treated/clean water is reinjected to augment hydraulic control.
- OSTI ID:
- 106029
- Journal Information:
- Pollution Engineering, Vol. 27, Issue 8; Other Information: PBD: Aug 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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