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SURFACTANT FLUSH: HOW WELL DID IT WORK?
Citation:
Wilson*, J T. SURFACTANT FLUSH: HOW WELL DID IT WORK? Presented at 2004 LUST Nat'l. Conf, New Orleans, LA, March 01 - 03, 2004.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission through a contract with Surbec-Art, Inc. of Norman Oklahoma has remediated TPH contamination at a gasoline spill at Golden, Oklahoma. Residual gasoline was removed from the subsurface using a flush of surfactant, followed by in situ bioremediation and application of the Fenton Reagent. The Ground Water and Ecosystems Restoration Division of the National Risk Management Laboratory/ U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development was invited to perform a retrospective performance evaluation. Staff of the GWERD collected cores samples from seventeen locations at the spill site for analysis of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon (TPH). At each location the core samples extend from clean material above the spill, across the spill into clean material below the spill. The staff of the GRWERD also determined the vertical profile of hydraulic conductivity at three locations in the site. The site was very challenging for in situ flush or in situ degradation technologies. The TPH was contained in an interval with low hydraulic conductivity (less than 0.3 feet per day). Immediately below the interval with residual TPH was an aquifer with a hydraulic conductivity greater than 30 feet per day. There was a strong possibility that remedial fluids injected into the subsurface would short circuit the area with residual TPH. The maximum concentration of TPH before remediation varied from 3,600 to 5,700 mg/kg. There was extensive removal of TPH at every location sample except one location. At the one anomalous location the maximum concentration of TPH was 21,000 mg/kg. The next highest maximum concentration was 705 mg/kg, and the average of the maximum concentration at the other sixteen locations was 240 mg/kg. With the exception of the one anomalous location, the remedial activity at this site removed approximately 90% of the TPH from the subsurface material.