You are here:
PERFORMANCE OF MTBE CLEAN-UP TECHNOLOGIES IN NEW YORK STATE
Citation:
Wilson, B. H. AND J T. Wilson*. PERFORMANCE OF MTBE CLEAN-UP TECHNOLOGIES IN NEW YORK STATE. Presented at 13th Annual West Coast Conf. on Contaminated Soil Sediments & Water, San Diego, CA, March 17 - 20, 2003.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
The efficiency of cleanup technologies, based on MTBE concentration reduction, was evaluated for 1,012 UST sites from the State of New York. MTBE concentration reduction was calculated by dividing the maximum BTBE concentration by the current MTBE concentrations and the resulting ratios compared to individual technologies. Subcategories were created based on concentration reduction of 1000 x or greater, 100-999x, 10-99x, and1.1-9.9x. Typically, two or three major technologies were implemented at each site; the most common remedial approaches were combinations of soil excavation, soil vacuum extraction, (SEV), air sparging, and pump-and-treat. There were two major UST categories, those with aquifer impacts (463 sites) and those without aquifer impacts (549 sites). The "no aquifer impact" designation may refer to LNAPL present only in the vadose zone, although groundwater contamination could occur due to diffusion gradients or a fluctuating water table.
At sites with aquifer impacts, the most frequently used technologies for cleanup were soil vacuum extraction (43%), soil excavation (38%), pump-and-treat (34%), and air sparging (21%). The most commonly used technologies for reduction of 1000x or greater were soil vacuum extraction (61%), soil extraction (41%), pump-and-treat (48%), and air sparging (33%). For the sites with 1.1x - 9.9x concentration ratio, the most frequently used technologies were soil vacuum extraction (40%), soil excavation (38%), and both pump-and-treat and air sparging (22%).
At the 549 UST sites with no aquifer impacts, the most consistently used technologies were soil vacuum extraction (36%), soil excavation (45%), and pump-and-treat (30%), and groundwater bioremediation (23%). The technologies used for the greatest maximum/current concentration ratio (1000x+) were soil vacuum extraction (56%), soil excavation (41%), pump-and-treat (38%), and groundwater bioremediation (26%). The technologies used for the least maximum/current concentration ratio (1.1x - 9.9) were also soil vacuum extraction (34%), soil excavation (48%), pump-and-treat (29%), and groundwater bioremediation (23%).