Cleaning Up Large Groundwater Plumes to Drinking Water Standards: Dynamic Groundwater Recirculation at Reese Air Force Base - 17248
- ARCADIS US, Inc. (United States)
Overall cleanup of large plumes is perceived as being impossible because of issues of scale, contaminant mass accessibility, time to achieve cleanup, and cost. As a result, when a groundwater pump and treat (P and T) remedy is applied to larger plumes, the focus is usually hydraulic containment of contaminated groundwater to prevent further plume migration, rather than a total restoration objective. Recent experience with dynamic operation of groundwater extraction, treatment, and strategic reinjection (collectively referred to as dynamic groundwater recirculation [DGR]) demonstrates that large plume remediation can be accomplished cost effectively and in a timely manner. The insight from operating DGR remedies at multiple sites has demonstrated that contaminant mass residing in a complex aquifer setting is most appropriately described by a three-compartment model, which is a new revelation in contaminant hydrogeology redefining what is possible in restoration. A large-scale application of DGR was implemented under a firm fixed price contract at former Reese Air Force Base (AFB) located in Lubbock, Texas. The strategy was successful in restoration of a sole-source drinking water aquifer affected by a 3-mile long trichloroethene (TCE) plume. DGR allowed groundwater P and T rates to be decreased from over 3,400 liters per minute (lpm) to less than 1,500 lpm through initial optimization efforts. The DGR strategy focused extraction and reinjection on two key objectives: 1) maximizing contaminant mass recovery and 2) maintaining hydraulic control of the plume. Extraction and injection wells were dynamically operated and cycled to maintain a remediation pace that restored 0.8 to 1.2 hectares of the plume per week over a 6-year period. Plume cleanup to drinking water standards was achieved in 9 years of optimized operation. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 27646, 85285-7646 Tempe, AZ (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 22794629
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-19-WM-17248; TRN: US19V0308038848
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: WM2017 Conference: 43. Annual Waste Management Symposium, Phoenix, AZ (United States), 5-9 Mar 2017; Other Information: Country of input: France; 8 refs.; available online at: http://archive.wmsym.org/2017/index.html
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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