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LONG-TERM PERFORMANCE MONITORING OF PERMEABLE REACTIVE BARRIERS TO REMEDIATE CONTAMINATED GROUND WATER
Citation:
Puls*, R W., F A. Khan*, AND R T. Wilkin*. LONG-TERM PERFORMANCE MONITORING OF PERMEABLE REACTIVE BARRIERS TO REMEDIATE CONTAMINATED GROUND WATER. Presented at GSA Annual Conference, Reno, NV, 11/9-18/2000.
Description:
Permeable reactive barriers (PRB's) are an alternative in-situ approach for remediating contaminated groundwater that combine subsurface fluid flow management with a passive chemical treatment zone. PRB's are being selected with increased frequency at waste sites (more than 40 full-scale installations as of 8/00 at a current rate of about 15 per year) around the world. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Research and Development (USEPA-ORD) has been one of the leading groups in researching applications of PRB's for many different types of contaminants, studying improved engineering designs, evaluating installation and operating techniques, coordinating long-term performance research, and providing technology transfer (e.g., workshops, training courses). The National Risk Management Research Laboratory of USEPA-ORD is currently involved in federal tri-agency initiative (Department of Energy, Department of Defense) to study the long-term performance of PRB's at a dozen PRB installations across the United States. All of these sites have used zero-valent iron as the reactive media in the PRB's and many have installed since 1996. This presentation will focus on the initial results of that study. In particular, it will emphasize the EPA study sites and examine the following: long-term effects on hydrologic flow patterns in the vicinity of barriers; the rate of precipitate formation in the reaction zone due to the corrosion of the iron; and microbiological effects within and near the barriers as a result of their placement within the subsurface.