Scenarios Evaluation Tool for Chlorinated Solvent MNA

TRRP Training: 2022 Program

presented by: GSI Environmetal Inc.

Texas Risk Reduction Program regulations (TRRP; 30 TAC 350) establish consistent risk-based protocols for assessment and response to soil, groundwater, or surface water impacts associated with environmental releases of regulated wastes or substances.

Presented by GSI Environmental Inc., this popular and informative training series is a must for professionals who need a working understanding of TRRP and those needing to stay up-to-date with the latest TCEQ TRRP guidance and policies.

TRRP Training Course (2 Days): Provides an overview of the TRRP framework and step-by-step training on property assessment and response action procedures established under the TRRP rule

Attendees will become acquainted with rules, key guidance and policies covering affected property assessments, protective concentration levels, and response actions. The course material presents strategies for efficient project management in compliance with TRRP and explains the various report forms adopted by TCEQ.

Dates and Location

Dates

June 14th and 15th, 2022

Location

Crowne Plaza River Oaks 2712 SW Freeway Houston, Texas 77098 713.523.8448 http://www.crowneplaza.com/

Price and Registration

Early-Bird Price

(Paid by May 1, 2022)
$XXX

Standard Price

(Paid after May 1, 2022)
$XXX

TAEP Membership Price

$XXX

Government Price

$XXX

Lodging and meals are not
included in course cost

Authors: Michael J. Truex, Charles J. Newell, Dr. Brian Looney, Karen Vangelas

Published: August 2006 in Savannah River National Laboratory.

Abstract

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Over the past three decades, much progress has been made in the remediation of chlorinated solvents from the subsurface. Yet these pervasive contaminants continue to present a significant challenge to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), other federal agencies, and other public and private organizations. The physical and chemical properties of chlorinated solvents make it difficult to rapidly reach the low concentrations typically set as regulatory limits. These technical challenges often result in high costs and long remediation time frames. In 2003, the DOE through the Office of Environmental Management funded a science-based technical project that uses the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s technical protocol (EPA, 1998) and directives (EPA, 1999) on Monitored Natural Attenuation (MNA) as the foundation on which to introduce supporting concepts and new scientific developments that will support remediation of chlorinated solvents based on natural attenuation processes. This project supports the direction in which many site owners want to move to complete the remediation of their site(s), that being to complete the active treatment portion of the remedial effort and transition into MNA.

The overarching objective of the effort was to examine environmental remedies that are based on natural processes & remedies such as Monitored Natural Attenuation (MNA) or Enhanced Attenuation (EA). The research program did identify several specific opportunities for advances based on: 1) mass balance as the central framework for attenuation based remedies, 2) scientific advancements and achievements during the past ten years, 3) regulatory and policy development and real-world experience using MNA, and 4) exploration of various ideas for integrating attenuation remedies into a systematic set of “combined remedies” for contaminated sites. These opportunities are summarized herein and are addressed in more detail in referenced project documents and journal articles, as well as in the technical and regulatory documents being developed within the ITRC.

Three topic areas were identified for development during this project. These areas are: mass balance, Enhanced Attenuation (EA), and new characterization and monitoring tools and approaches to support MNA and EA. Each of these topics is documented in stand alone reports, WSRC-STI-2006-00082, WSRC-STI-2006-0083, and WSRC-STI-2006-00084, respectively. In brief, the mass balance efforts are examining methods and tools to allow a site to be evaluated in terms of a system where the inputs and processes within the system are compared to the outputs from the system, as well as understanding what attenuation processes may be occurring and how likely they are to occur within a system. Enhanced Attenuation is a new concept that is a transition step between primary treatments and MNA, when the natural attenuation processes are not sufficient to allow direct transition from the primary treatment to MNA. EA technologies are designed to either boost the level of the natural attenuation processes or decrease the loading of contaminants to the system for a period of time sufficient to allow the remedial goals to be met over the long-term. For characterization and monitoring, a phased approach based on documenting the site specific mass balance was developed. Tools and techniques to support the approach included direct measures of the biological processes and various tools to support cost-effective long-term monitoring of systems where the natural attenuation processes are the main treatment remedies. The effort revealed opportunities for integrating attenuation mechanisms into a systematic set of “combined remedies” for contaminated sites.

An important portion of this project was a suite of 14 research studies that supported the development of the three topic areas. A research study could support one or more of these three topic areas, with one area identified as the primary target. The following report documents the results of the development of a scenario based framework tosupport MNA and EA decision-making led by Charles J. Newell of GroundwaterServices Inc. and Michael Truex of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. This study supports the topic area(s) of characterization and monitoring and Enhanced Attenuation with characterization and monitoring being the primary development area. The objective of the study was to Develop a guide to provide practitioners with an appropriate level osite specificity to assist in planning/supporting characterization, modeling, and implementation of MNA and EA. The tool consists of a user’s guide and 13 scenarios that are built around general site conditions and hydrogeologic conditions.

The Scenarios document is practical in its focus and scope but the investigators did an excellent job of weaving in the latest science (in the form of reaction mechanisms and (rates) and in leveraging related efforts funded by DOD and EPA (e.g.,BIOCHLOR, BIOPLUME, MAROS, etc.). This work builds significantly on the 1998 EPA protocol. In many cases, the historical datasets developed for these other projects were used as the basis for setting the boundaries on the bins (e.g., for flow rate changes, etc.). The idea of a taxonomic key for chlorinated organic MNA was a substantive challenge and the result is impressive. Any time that a system is set up to organize and simplify a problem, there will be potential technical challenges, but this work is structured to encourage collection of key site specific data when those pitfalls are approached at any particular plume or plume zone.

The research team did a very good job of describing the various key concepts that a site owner needs to understand and communicate with respect to the viability of MNA. This product provides basic guidance on the different degradation mechanisms that are likely to occur given different site conditions. These scenarios should be beneficial to the user in focusing on key concepts/questions that pertain to their site conditions.