REMEDIATION OF BTEX RESIDUAL FROM A PIPELINE RELEASE

摘要

The challenging wilderness terrain of a South Louisiana bayou obviated the use of conventional remedial technologies to mitigate persistent BTEX released from a product pipeline transporting gasoline. Because this remote site is underwater much of the year and has no access to electricity, conventional remedial systems such as Soil Vapor Extraction (SVE) or pump and treat were not applicable. Therefore, based upon the desire to evaluate a new technology under these challenging conditions and the ease at which the BMS Direct Injection Delivery (DID~(TM)) can inject compounds into the subsurface, the BIOX~R in-situ chemical oxidation process was selected. The remediation was successfully accomplished in two applications and the site submitted for closure. However, while the chemistry was shown to successfully oxidize the contaminants and stimulate enhanced biodegradation, the most significant factor demonstrated during the work was the ability of the technology to precisely reveal their in-situ location. This site characterization tool made it possible to place the reagent in the areas of highest contaminant concentration thus greatly increasing the probability of success. Mild off-gassing of carbon dioxide and oxygen which is reflected back through the injection points when the BIOX~R reagent contacts smeared or perched contaminants reveals their location in the subsurface. This phenomenon provides the information so that a detailed grid map showing the location of the contaminants can be drawn. It was this feature that detailed the location of the contaminant plume and allowed the BIOX~R reagent to be placed where it would assure maximum contact with the pollutants. Since this site characterization technique was introduced at this South Louisiana site, it has been successfully used to locate and remediate contaminants at numerous sites.