Grantee Research Project Results
2001 Progress Report: Demonstration of a Subsurface Drainage System for the Remediation of Brine-Impacted Soil
EPA Grant Number: R827015C003Subproject: this is subproject number 003 , established and managed by the Center Director under grant R827015
(EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
Center: Center for the Study of Metals in the Environment
Center Director: Allen, Herbert E.
Title: Demonstration of a Subsurface Drainage System for the Remediation of Brine-Impacted Soil
Investigators: Harris, Thomas M. , Veenstra, John N.
Institution: University of Tulsa , Oklahoma State University
EPA Project Officer: Aja, Hayley
Project Period: February 1, 2000 through December 21, 2000 (Extended to April 22, 2001)
Project Period Covered by this Report: February 1, 2000 through December 21, 2001
Project Amount: Refer to main center abstract for funding details.
RFA: Integrated Petroleum Environmental Consortium (IPEC) (1999) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Hazardous Waste/Remediation , Targeted Research
Objective:
Brine-impacted soil is the most common environmental problem associated with the onshore production of oil and gas. Salt causes the outright death of plants, and the consequent erosion of topsoil. The remediation of brine-impacted soil may be motivated by lease agreements, federal and state regulations, landowner claims, and the fear of long-term liability. At the present time, the most common remediation strategy applied to brine-impacted soil is in-situ chemical amendment (ISCA). This treatment entails the application of gypsum, hay, etc. to the soil to restore its permeability and fertility. Since such treatments are designed to encourage the downward movement of salt through the soil profile, they will fail if there is an impediment (such as a low-permeability subsoil) to this downward movement. Such conditions are not uncommon in the oil-producing counties of northeastern Oklahoma, for example.
Subsurface drainage may be used to accelerate the remediation of brine-impacted soil by enhancing the lateral movement of salt through the contaminated topsoil. This project, which concerns the further development of this technology, has three objectives. The first is to evaluate innovative uses of limestone gravel in the drainage for the purpose of reducing the cost of installing the drainage. This material may also serve to enhance the permeability of the surrounding soil, by providing the calcium ions required to counteract the sodicity of the brine-impacted soil. In addition to the treatment of a contemporary brine spill, this strategy will be considered for the treatment a historical "brine scar", where topsoil applied to the site must be protected from the upward migration of salt during periods of dryness. The third objective is to demonstrate the use of a solar evaporation pond for collecting the salty leachate from a subsurface drainage system, and reducing its volume through evaporation in order to reduce the cost of disposal.
Progress Summary:
The Keefer lease, 1 mile east of Bartlesville, Oklahoma on Highway 60, has been chosen as the site for this demonstration. This lease was the site of a large waterflooding operation in the 1960's. It is currently operated by Marjo Oil Co. One area within this site (Area I) is contaminated with salt but has retained much of its topsoil. Another more extensive area (Area II) is deeply scarred by erosion, with absolutely no topsoil remaining.
The performance of the subsurface drainage systems is being assessed from the amount of salt removed as leachate by the system, as well as by the decrease in the salt content of the soil (and consequent revegetation) in the test plots. Due to the extremely hot and dry weather in Oklahoma during the late summer and fall little leachate has flowed up to this point. To date leachate samples have been collected only from the pond, and on only one date, 1/21/01.
The soil has been too hard to core so far; this was due to a lack of rainfall in the fall, and uncharacteristically cold temperatures in the winter. However, composite surface soil samples have been collected on two different dates, 9/24/00 and 1/21/01. These samples were collected with a shovel, forced into the soil to a depth of approximately 10 cm. Soil samples were extracted within two weeks of their arrival at the laboratory. Measurement of the conductivity and determination of the major anions and cations was then performed no more than three days after extraction. The leachate samples were analyzed at the same time as the soil extracts.
The conductivity of samples of leachate from the pond and of soil extracts was measured using a YSI conductivity bridge and dip probe. The concentrations of chloride and sulfate ion in the leachate sample and the soil extracts were determined by ion chromatography. The concentrations of the major cations (sodium, calcium and magnesium ion) were determined in both soil extracts and the leachate sample using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrophotometry (ICP-AES).
The conductivity of the single evaporation pond sample, collected on 1/21/01, is 1000 mhos. A sample of standing water collected from test cell II-1 provided a conductivity of 1950 mhos. Thus, the leachate in the pond is more dilute than the standing water, which is presumably in equilibrium with the soil in that cell. It may be concluded that the pond has received run-off in addition to leachate from the subsurface drainage system. Remedial construction work on the area surrounding the pond will be performed to correct this problem.
Based on the analysis of the extracts of the soil samples, it may be concluded that the extent of brine contamination in Area I is far from being uniform. Nevertheless, since every test condition is being evaluated in at least different test cells, and the cells were assigned the test conditions randomly, we should still be able to formulate conclusions about efficacy of the various treatments. Also, there was a significant decrease in the contamination levels from the first sampling date (9/24/01) to the second sampling date (1/21/01). While it is tempting to attribute this decrease in contamination to the remediation system, it is more likely due to an artifact of the samples. All of the data in these figures correspond to surface samples. It has been observed in other studies that the concentrations of brine components will increase at the surface during periods of hot, dry weather. Such conditions did exist at the time of the first sampling; in fact, the first sampling had been preceded by a period of 3 months during which it rained only once, for a total of less than 1 cm of precipitation.
The conductivity and the chloride and sodium ion concentrations have not increased significantly in the test cells of Area II to which topsoil has been applied. In addition, test cells II-3 and II-4 show even less increase in these values than cell II-2. This observation is consistent with the gravel layer in cells II-3 and II-4 acting as an effective barrier to the upward movement of salt, thus ensuring that the topsoil applied to the site will not be contaminated itself.
Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 4 publications for this subprojectSupplemental Keywords:
RFA, Scientific Discipline, Waste, Water, Geographic Area, TREATMENT/CONTROL, Sustainable Industry/Business, Contaminated Sediments, Remediation, Chemistry, State, Technology, Civil/Environmental Engineering, Hazardous Waste, Oil Spills, New/Innovative technologies, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Hazardous, solar evaporation pond, green engineering, contaminated soil, oil spill, soils, IPEC, soil, treatment, brine-impacted soil, subsurface drainage system, Oklahoma (OK), innovative technologiesProgress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractMain Center Abstract and Reports:
R827015 Center for the Study of Metals in the Environment Subprojects under this Center: (EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
R827015C001 Evaluation of Road Base Material Derived from Tank Bottom Sludges
R827015C002 Passive Sampling Devices (PSDs) for Bioavailability Screening of Soils Containing Petrochemicals
R827015C003 Demonstration of a Subsurface Drainage System for the Remediation of Brine-Impacted Soil
R827015C004 Anaerobic Intrinsic Bioremediation of Whole Gasoline
R827015C005 Microflora Involved in Phytoremediation of Polyaromatic Hydrocarbons
R827015C006 Microbial Treatment of Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (NORM)
R827015C007 Using Plants to Remediate Petroleum-Contaminated Soil
R827015C008 The Use of Nitrate for the Control of Sulfide Formation in Oklahoma Oil Fields
R827015C009 Surfactant-Enhanced Treatment of Oil-Contaminated Soils and Oil-Based Drill Cuttings
R827015C010 Novel Materials for Facile Separation of Petroleum Products from Aqueous Mixtures Via Magnetic Filtration
R827015C011 Development of Relevant Ecological Screening Criteria (RESC) for Petroleum Hydrocarbon-Contaminated Exploration and Production Sites
R827015C012 Humate-Induced Remediation of Petroleum Contaminated Surface Soils
R827015C013 New Process for Plugging Abandoned Wells
R827015C014 Enhancement of Microbial Sulfate Reduction for the Remediation of Hydrocarbon Contaminated Aquifers - A Laboratory and Field Scale Demonstration
R827015C015 Locating Oil-Water Interfaces in Process Vessels
R827015C016 Remediation of Brine Spills with Hay
R827015C017 Continuation of an Investigation into the Anaerobic Intrinsic Bioremediation of Whole Gasoline
R827015C018 Using Plants to Remediate Petroleum-Contaminated Soil
R827015C019 Biodegradation of Petroleum Hydrocarbons in Salt-Impacted Soil by Native Halophiles or Halotolerants and Strategies for Enhanced Degradation
R827015C020 Anaerobic Intrinsic Bioremediation of MTBE
R827015C021 Evaluation of Commercial, Microbial-Based Products to Treat Paraffin Deposition in Tank Bottoms and Oil Production Equipment
R827015C022 A Continuation: Humate-Induced Remediation of Petroleum Contaminated Surface Soils
R827015C023 Data for Design of Vapor Recovery Units for Crude Oil Stock Tank Emissions
R827015C024 Development of an Environmentally Friendly and Economical Process for Plugging Abandoned Wells
R827015C025 A Continuation of Remediation of Brine Spills with Hay
R827015C026 Identifying the Signature of the Natural Attenuation of MTBE in Goundwater Using Molecular Methods and "Bug Traps"
R827015C027 Identifying the Signature of Natural Attenuation in the Microbial
Ecology of Hydrocarbon Contaminated Groundwater Using Molecular Methods and
"Bug Traps"
R827015C028 Using Plants to Remediate Petroleum-Contaminated Soil: Project Continuation
R827015C030 Effective Stormwater and Sediment Control During Pipeline Construction Using a New Filter Fence Concept
R827015C031 Evaluation of Sub-micellar Synthetic Surfactants versus Biosurfactants for Enhanced LNAPL Recovery
R827015C032 Utilization of the Carbon and Hydrogen Isotopic Composition of Individual Compounds in Refined Hydrocarbon Products To Monitor Their Fate in the Environment
R830633 Integrated Petroleum Environmental Consortium (IPEC)
R830633C001 Development of an Environmentally Friendly and Economical Process for Plugging Abandoned Wells (Phase II)
R830633C002 A Continuation of Remediation of Brine Spills with Hay
R830633C003 Effective Stormwater and Sediment Control During Pipeline Construction Using a New Filter Fence Concept
R830633C004 Evaluation of Sub-micellar Synthetic Surfactants versus Biosurfactants for Enhanced LNAPL Recovery
R830633C005 Utilization of the Carbon and Hydrogen Isotopic Composition of Individual Compounds in Refined Hydrocarbon Products To Monitor Their Fate in the Environment
R830633C006 Evaluation of Commercial, Microbial-Based Products to Treat Paraffin Deposition in Tank Bottoms and Oil Production Equipment
R830633C007 Identifying the Signature of the Natural Attenuation in the Microbial Ecology of Hydrocarbon Contaminated Groundwater Using Molecular Methods and “Bug Traps”
R830633C008 Using Plants to Remediate Petroleum-Contaminated Soil: Project Continuation
R830633C009 Use of Earthworms to Accelerate the Restoration of Oil and Brine Impacted Sites
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.
Project Research Results
Main Center: R827015
120 publications for this center
16 journal articles for this center