Challenge

A contractor working on behalf of site owners of a former Manufactured Gas Plant (MGP) on the East Coast contacted Siemens Water Technologies for assistance in the design of a groundwater and recovery system at that site. MGP operations had been phased out over 50 years ago, however contaminants from the operations remained in the soil, sediments, and groundwater.

Remedial investigations indicated that both on- and off-site soil and groundwater were contaminated with a variety of hazardous substances including volatile organic compounds (VOC's), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), heavy metals, phenols and cyanide. On and off-site well monitoring indicated that the maximum concentration of VOCs (benzene and trichloroethene) exceeded their respective environmental guideline for discharge.   

Solution

The Siemens solution included (1) PV® Series 10000 adsorber in the lead position containing organoclay media for the removal of dissolved oils, followed by (1) PV® Series 10000 system, which featured dual adsorbers on a single skid containing Westates® reactivated granular carbon for removal of VOCs. A piping manifold between the GAC containing units allowed a series mode operation. Since the system was not intended to be permanent, Siemens provided all the equipment on a rental basis 

Result

The system operated from March 2008 to March 2009. During that time, the system treated over 1 million gallons of water and met the customer's state discharge permit. The system was so successful that an identical installation is planned for October 2010 as they enter the next phase of remediation.

Download the entire case study