Field demonstration of remedial technologies at a former manufactured gas plant site
- Niagara Mohawk Power Corp., Syracuse, NY (United States). Environmental Affairs Dept.
From the mid 1800s until the late 1950s, the major energy source for domestic lighting, heating, and cooking was a manufactured fuel derived from the pyrolysis of coal and oil. These manufactured gas production facilities were located throughout the country; at one time more than 3000 plants may have been in operation, with 180 in New York state alone. During the 1950s, the installation of a vast interstate gas pipeline system allowed the transport of relatively inexpensive natural gas from oil production fields to the metropolitan areas. This natural gas had a BTU content of almost twice that of manufactured gas and, being inherently cheaper, resulted in the overnight demise of the MGP industry. The vast majority of the MGP facilities were demolished and the sites either converted to other uses or abandoned. In the early 1980s, utilities discovered these long abandoned production facilities during various environmental site assessments and audits. In 1990, NMPC initiated a project at a MGP byproduct disposal site (EPRI Site 24) to investigate the technologies necessary for removal of contaminated source materials and soils, treatment of the impacted soil, and evaluation of the potential for natural attenuation of a contaminated groundwater plume (EPRI, 1996). MGP-impacted soil from this site was transported to two treatment facilities: a cement Kiln in North Carolina, and an asphalt plant in Virginia. This experience generated considerable data on management of these sites, even though this site was a simple disposal area and not a former production facility. A long-term monitoring program is indicating that natural attenuation processes appear to b responsible for the decreasing levels of key constituents in the groundwater after source materials are removed. A number of key lessons learned were generated from the study, especially recognizing that transportation is a major cost component in site remediation.
- OSTI ID:
- 319034
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-980426--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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