Extended Abstract for the WERC, WRHSRC AND NMHWMS Joint Conference on the Environment Title: Creating Deep Permeable Reactive Barriers to Treat Contaminated Groundwater

摘要

The classical approach for treating contaminated groundwater is to pump the water above ground and then treat or remove the contaminants. In most cases, the treated groundwater must be re-injected into the aquifer. This process is called pump & treat. Permeable reactive treatment (PeRT) systems offer a cost-effective alternative to pump & treat systems. In this case, contaminated groundwater flows by natural processes into a permeable wall of reactive materials that has been installed in the path of groundwater flow. Contaminants in the groundwater are trapped or degraded by the reactive materials in the wall, and are thus removed from the groundwater flow. In most cases, PeRT systems are entirely passive, and they offer great savings in operation and maintenance costs since no energy is required to pump large amounts of water above ground prior to treatment. Consequently, PeRT systems have been receiving a great deal of interest as systems for preventing the migration of groundwater contaminants from a site. A sign of this interest is the fact that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sponsored government-industry-academic partnership called the Remediation Technologies Development Forum (RTDF) now has established a Permeable Reactive Barrier Workgroup. Much of the recent activity by this group and others has focused on the development of more effective reactive materials and on better ways to get the reactive materials into the ground in the path of the groundwater flow.