Innovative horizontal wells enhance groundwater remediation
- Black and Veatch Waste Science, Inc., Kansas City, MO (United States)
A Record of Decision (August 1990) required pump-and-treat remediation of the contaminated groundwater plume extending beneath Building 3001 at Tinker Air Force Base (AFB), OK. Operations inside Building 3001 (a 62-acre aircraft overhaul facility) had, in past decades, contaminated the underlying shallow aquifer zones with industrial solvents--primarily trichloroethylene (TCE) and chromium. The discussion will detail how horizontal extraction wells have greatly enhanced contaminant removal, thereby reducing the duration and cost of the remediation effort. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) required that contaminated groundwater be extracted from both the perimeter and the heart of the plume. This required placing extraction well screens beneath the center of Building 3001. Because installation of conventional vertical wells inside Building 3001 would have disrupted critical aircraft overhaul operations, five horizontal wells were drilled from outside the building using slant drill rigs and steerable down-hole drilling motors. Each horizontal well is more than 900 feet long, and each places 200 feet of extraction screen in the areas of highest contaminant concentration. The upper aquifer zone is a thin perched aquifer. A conventional vertical well would allow only about 15-feet of productive well screen, thus restricting flow to 2 or 3 gallons per minute (gpm) per well. The longer horizontal well screens have allowed extraction rates of 8 to 18 gpm per well. The increased flow rate has significantly improved plume control and capture and has accelerated contaminant mass removal, reducing ultimate duration and cost of remediation.
- OSTI ID:
- 215579
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-951139--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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