Site Remediation

Groundwater Resources Management and Aquifer Rehabilitation Services

A successful implementation of any site investigation and remedial technology requires a multi-disciplinary approach. Our key personnel are experienced in all phases of soil, groundwater investigation, and remediation technology to offer the following:

  • Aquifer Tests and Analysis
  • Groundwater Quality Assessment
  • Assessment of Environmental Contamination, Extent and Source
  • Groundwater Monitoring Systems to Identify Gradients and Contamination Sources
  • Expert Testimony

Remedial Investigation and Remedy Selection

RRA offers a full range of innovative remedial services to consultants, governmental agencies, and industrial clients. The complex environmental problems facing our clients can best be solved through an understanding of the regulatory process and the creative application of existing and new technologies. RRA has streamlined the remedial investigation/remedy selection process to provide more effective front-end studies of hazardous waste sites. Our personnel are fully qualified to develop a database for the following remedial alternative’s plan:

  • Aquifer testing
  • Evaluating cleanup levels and time
  • Identifying recharge/discharge zones (mass balance)
  • Assessing system stresses (e.g., recharge and pumping rates)
  • Physical parameters of the contaminated region (e.g., hydraulic conductivity, storage coefficient, and aquifer thickness)
  • Solute transport data (advection, dispersion, diffusion)
  • Prepare Record of decision

In Situ Biological Treatment

In situ biological remediation is the engineered process by which the environment where the indigenous subsurface microorganisms reside is potimized to promote contaminates degradation in place. The two approaches of in situ bioremediation of contaminated groundwater and soil are as follows:

  • Enhanced natural degradation is the most advanced in situ biological degradation process available.
  • The process offers low capital cost, least site disruption, and rapid cleanup time of both soil and groundwater
  • Treatment of contaminated water in an aboveground boireactor in addition to monitoring in situ treatment.
  • Laboratory bioreatability studies coupled with hydrogeological assessment will determine which alternative is most suitable for site remediation.

Land Farming

Land farming, also known as land treatment or land application, is an aboveground remediation technology for soil that reduces concentrations of petroleum products through biodegradation. RRA personnel have conducted land-farming technology on nearly all the constituents of petroleum products typically found at underground storage tank sites.

Physical Treatability

Most of the physical treatment methods employed for groundwater treatment involve stripping systems to affect the removal of various volatile organic contaminants from ground water. Air strippers and team-enhanced air strippers maximize the natural mass transfer of a solute from an aqueous phase through mechanically induced aeration techniques. Air stripping techniques include diffused aeration, surface aeration, spray aeration, and countercurrent packed-tower aeration.

Steam Enhanced Air Stripping

In steam stripping applications, soluble contaminates from the groundwater can be removed by enhancing the volatility of these contaminates are higher than that of water, the sparging effect liberates these contaminants from the groundwater.

Contaminated groundwater is heated in a heat exchanger and then enters near the top of the tower. The heated water flows countercurrent to the steam rising from the bottom of the column. This contact between the water and the steam progressively lessens the concentrations of volatile organic in the water as it approaches the bottom of the column.

Activated Carbon Treatment

RRA has extensive experience in using activated carbon adsorption for treatment of groundwater contaminated with organic constituents. Activated carbons can be used to remove chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), toxic and refractory organic (up to 1- percent concentrations) and certain inorganic chemicals from groundwater.

Media Filtration

RRA uses media filtration to remove particulate matter from contaminates aqueous streams. These media involve passing water through layers of porous materials. The pore size of the filter media selected determines the turbidity that can be removed from the contaminated material.

Discharge or Reinjection of Treated Groundwater

Samples from the effluent are obtained to assess the objectives and effectiveness of the groundwater treatment system. If the effluent meets the discharge criteria, the following options can be implemented.

  • Discharge into the existing sewage system
  • Discharge to surface waters. Special permits and strict water quality monitoring are required
  • Injection using wells or infiltration galleries

In Situ Soil Vapor Extraction

In situ soil vapor extraction (SVE) is a technology that reduces concentrations of volatile consituents in petroleum products adsorbed to the soil in the unsaturated (vadose) zone. In this technology vacuum is applied to the soil matrix to create a negative pressure gradient that causes movement of vapors toward the extraction wells. The extracted vapors are then treated proper to discharge. RRA professionals have successfully applied SVE systems to the lighter petroleum hydrocarbons at underground storage sites.

In Situ Air Sparring

RRA has gained recognition among clients and regulators for its application of innovative technologies to achieve cost-effective remedial action with short-term results. This technology reduces concentrations of volatile organic compounds adsorbed to the soils and dissolved in groundwater enabling a phase transfer of hydrocarbons from a dissolved in groundwater enabling a phase transfer of hydrocarbons from a dissolved phase to a vapor phase. The sparged-air is then vented through the unsaturated zone.

Stabilization