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CONTAMINANTS AND REMEDIAL OPTIONS AT WOOD PRESERVING SITES
Citation:
Sudell, G. CONTAMINANTS AND REMEDIAL OPTIONS AT WOOD PRESERVING SITES. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/R-92/182 (NTIS 92-232222), 1992.
Impact/Purpose:
information.
Description:
This document provides information that facilitates characterization of the site and selection of treatment technologies at wood preserving sites, to meet the regulations’ acceptable cleanup levels. It does not provide risk-assessment information or policy guidance related to determination of cleanup levels. This document will assist federal, state, or private site removal and remedial managers operating under Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and LiabilityAct (CERCLA), Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), or state regulations. The wood preserving industry treats wood in pressurized cylinders, with one of the following types of preservatives: • Pentachlorophenol in petroleum or other solvents • Creosote • Water or ammonia solutions of copper, chromium, arsenic, and zinc • Fire retardants Older wood preserver sites contain widespread soil, sediment, and sludge contamination generated by processes, practices, equipment leaks, storage, arid waste treatment. Often, these primary sources lead to secondary contamination of underlying soil, which leads to groundwater pollution. Groundwater contamination Is particularly difficult to remediate because wood preservative components form nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPL5), some of which are lighter than water and float on the groundwater surface; others are denser and settle. The remedial manager faces the challenge of selecting remedial options that meet established cleanup levels. Two general options exist: destruction or immobilization. Separation/concentration technologies prepare wood preserving matrices for either destruction or immobilization. No single technology can remediate an entire wood preserving site. The remedial manager must combine pretreatment and posttreatment components to achieve the best performance by the principal technology. This document is designed for use with other remedial guidance documents issued for RCRA, CERCLA, and/or state mandated cleanups to accelerate the remediatión of wOod preserving sites. The contaminant characterization section will assist the remedial manager to identify the areas of a site most likely to be heavily contaminated with toxic and mobile compounds. The section on remedial options stresses the arrangement of treatment trains to achieve performance levels. It also introduces the concept of high-energy destruction techniques to reach stringent contaminant residual levels versus lower energy techniques for less rigorous performance requiremerits. The technology performance data provided can then assist the remedial manager to narrow options to those most likely to succeed in achieving site-specific cleanup goals. The descriptions of remedial options cover innovative and emerging technologies, as well as proven treatments. However, the section on water-treatment options provides only an overview on these techniques because they have already been thoroughly examined in other documents. Finally, this remedial aid provides a comprehensive bibliography, organized by the relevance to each section, to complement the information offered in these pages.