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LAND TREATMENT OF MILWAUKEE HARBOR SEDIMENTS CONTAMINATED WITH PAHS AND PCBS
Citation:
Sayles*, G, C M. Acheson*, M Rahman, A. D. Zaffiro, A Koeniger, J. Mansfield, D. Macke, AND D. Bowman. LAND TREATMENT OF MILWAUKEE HARBOR SEDIMENTS CONTAMINATED WITH PAHS AND PCBS. Presented at The Sixth International Symposium on In Situ and On-Site Bioremediation, San Diego, CA, 6/6/2001.
Description:
Sediments dredged in the maintenance of navigation channels often contain concentrations of PCBs and PAHs that necessitate placement in confined disposal facilities (CDFs). For the Great Lakes especially, the majority of CDFs were constructed in the 1970s or early 1980s and have been completely or nearly filled. The costs and environmental concerns with the siting of new CDFs have lead to the evaluation of whether existing CDFs can be operated as treatment facilities rather than disposal facilities. Thus, inexpensive treatment technologies are being evaluated to treat newly dredged sediments and to reclaim capacity by treating previously placed sediments. A pilot scale test of land treament was conducted using sediments contaminated with 150 mg/kg total PAHs and 1400 ug/kg total PCBs from the Kinnickinnic River portion of Milwaukee Harbor. After 29 weeks of treatment, total PAH removal was 33% and apparently not a function of biosolids level. PAH removal was observed for 3, 4, and 5-ring compounds. PCB removal was a strong inverse function of biosolids content such as at 0% and 20% biosolids, 64% and 0% of total PCBs were removed, respectively. Removal was observed in mino through hexa-chlorinated homolog groups. Removal of DRO was about 55% and not a function of biosolids level. After passive treatment, concentrations of PAHs and PCBs appeared to be unchanged.