Funnel-and-gate for in situ groundwater plume containment
- Univ. of Waterloo, Ontario (Canada). Waterloo Centre for Groundwater Research
- Waterloo Groundwater Control Technologies Inc., Rockwood, Ontario (Canada)
At most CERCLA and RCRA sites and numerous other sites, plumes of groundwater contamination emanate from subsurface source zones, commonly DNAPL or LNAPL source zones, where considerable volumes of immiscible organic liquids persist below the water table. Pump-and-treat can provide an effective means of containing hydraulically the dissolved contaminants emanating from these sources; however, at many sites pump-and-treat will have to continue for many decades or longer because the source zones dissipate slowly. Projected long term costs of operation, maintenance, and water disposal or reinjection are therefore large. A new approach for source zone containment or plume control that is more passive than pump-and-treat and that offers considerable potential for long term cost savings has been developed at the University of Waterloo (UW) and is referred to as the fuel-and-gate system (patent pending). In this system low permeability vertical barriers are placed across plumes. Gaps in the barrier allow passage of the plume through the barrier. In the gaps, referred to as gates, a reactive medium is positioned or released so that the plume water is treated while passing through the gates. The reactive medium can be solid phase particles and/or liquid from a controlled release system. The goal is to cause the plume to meet water quality standards on the down gradient side of the funnel-and-gate system and to avoid pumping plume water to surface for treatment.
- OSTI ID:
- 49383
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-941189--; ISBN 1-56590-016-2
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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