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Ground Water and Ecosystems Restoration Research |  |
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GWERD Research on NAPL Source Zones
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The remediation of subsurface formations contaminated by non-aqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) is a major impediment to the restoration of many hazardous waste sites. NAPLs are classified as those lighter than water (LNAPL) or denser than water (DNAPL) and can serve as long-term sources of contamination impacting both ground water and surface water. Conventional remediation techniques designed for dissolved contaminant removal have proven inadequate for achieving acceptable environmental cleanup goals within reasonable time frames for NAPL-contaminated source zones. Field-scale research has demonstrated that a high percentage of
NAPL mass can be rapidly depleted within source zones by using
aggressive in-situ thermal or chemical flushing technologies. Even
with these aggressive technologies, the efficiency of NAPL depletion
often decays exponentially with increasing mass removed and complete
NAPL removal may not be technically or economically feasible. For
such sites, the key questions are: 1) how much NAPL must be removed
to be protective of human health and the environment, and 2) are
current technologies adequate to achieve this level of removal.
To answer these questions, we must understand the relationships
between NAPL mass depletion, contaminant mass flux from the source
zone, and dissolved plume properties.
GWERD conducts applied and fundamental research to further develop source zone remediation technologies and to understand the relationship between source zone mass removal and risk reduction.
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