Table Of ContentNATURAL
and
ENHANCED
REMEDIATION
SYSTEMS
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NATURAL
and
ENHANCED
REMEDIATION
SYSTEMS
Suthan S. Suthersan
LEWIS PUBLISHERS
Boca Raton London New York Washington, D.C.
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
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© 2001 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
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Version Date: 20120710
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Sincere Thanks To:
Sumathy, Shauna, and Nealon for their enthusiastic
support and unending patience.
STP, MTP, MLM, and SBB for their insight, support,
inspiration, and trust.
Dedicated with utmost humility to the heroes and heroines of
Eelam who have put their lives in the line of fire to express
their intellectual freedom.
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Foreword
I have worked with Dr. Suthersan for the past 13 years and have seen firsthand
the impact he has had on the evolution of our business. Over this period, environ-
mental remediation has moved from a world of standard operation and application
of proven technology to one where more innovative concepts can be applied, tested,
and developed for the benefit of the environment, the regulatory community, and
industry. Dr. Suthersan has worked assiduously to develop new remediation tech-
nologies, move them to pilot testing in cooperation with industry, and make them
demonstrated techniques.
As our industry has matured, the pressures on all parties have increased: pressure
to assure protection of human health and the environment, to remediate faster, to
rapidly return sites to beneficial use, to reduce costs, etc. Finding a solution to these
competing objectives has become more and more intricate and must include the
impacts of social, economic, business, and environmental factors. Dr. Suthersan is
one of the most talented purveyors of remediation technology as a tool to solve these
complex problems in a world where competing priorities are the rule not the excep-
tion. The author has focused on finding these total business solutions for our industry,
using the innovative technical solutions he or others have created. Finding total
business solutions to multifaceted environmental problems is one of the hallmarks
of Dr. Suthersan’s career.
In this book, Dr. Suthersan explains some of the pioneering remediation tech-
nologies developed over the past few years. The focus is on those techniques that
modify or enhance the natural environment to aid in the remediation of contaminants.
When applied correctly, these engineered, natural systems have proven to be more
efficient and cost effective than their more intrusive predecessors. Assuring that these
techniques are applied correctly and tailored to each particular setting is a key
component of any system’s success. The impact of biological, chemical, and hydro-
geologic settings on these technologies is thoroughly discussed. Dr. Suthersan
describes each technique in detail: its processes, the science behind it, its application,
and the constraints. This book will be an invaluable resource to the practicing
remediation engineer, the regulatory community charged with evaluating these tech-
niques, and the industry applying them.
It has been a privilege to have worked with Dr. Suthersan for these past years
and to have seen the influence of his knowledge and skill in our industry. I believe
that those who read this book will gain from his wisdom.
Steve Blake
Executive Board, ARCADIS, N.V.
Denver, Colorado
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Preface
Remediation of hazardous wastes present in the subsurface has evolved with
time and has been influenced by various factors over the years. During the early
years, direction and efforts were mostly influenced by the regulations in place and
the need for compliance and protection of human health and environment. The
contaminants primarily focused upon during this time were the petroleum-related
contaminants stemming from leaking underground storage tanks (USTs).
In later years, remediation efforts were driven by a combination of economic
and regulatory factors. During this time contaminants that caught most of the atten-
tion were the chlorinated solvents, heavy metals, and chlorinated and nonchlorinated
polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The current focus seems to be taking a
different direction: instead of focusing on the type of contaminants, emphasis is on
evaluating the damage to the environment (and thus the risk) and repairing that
damage in a cost-effective manner.
Evolution of remediation technologies was influenced not only by changing
regulatory and economic factors, but also by the type and chemical characteristics
of contaminants under focus. An example is the shift in emphasis from engineered
aerobic bioremediation systems of the 1980s to engineered anaerobic bioremediation
systems of the 1990s. Significant reliance and dependence on natural remediation
systems have increased as a result of recent acceptance that landfills behave as
bioreactors and the very recent focus on dealing with ecological risks and natural
resources damage (NRD) assessments. Ever increasing understanding of the behav-
ior of most contaminants in the natural environment has also led to the effort of
maximizing the remediation potential of natural systems.
The thematic focus of this book is to highlight the current phase in the evolution
of remediation technologies. All the technologies discussed in the book utilize or
enhance the natural biogeochemical environment for remediation of hazardous con-
taminants. The discussion throughout the book is focused towards helping practitioners
of remediation to engineer remediation systems utilizing the natural environment.
These natural systems or reactors still have to be properly designed and engineered to
optimize the performance and maximize contaminant removal efficiencies.
The basic understanding of environmental and contaminant characteristics
required to design these systems is provided in Chapter 2. I had just coined the
phrase “in situ reactive zones (IRZ)” when I wrote my previous book in 1996 and
was able to provide only an introduction of the technology. I have made a signif-
icant effort in Chapter 4 to describe the IRZ technology and its various modified
applications. The manner in which the application of this technology is exploding
may justify a book of its own. I am proud to see the advances and expansion of
this technology pioneered by my colleagues and me at ARCADIS G & M, Inc.
Due to the shortage of space I could not present data from all the successful sites
using this technology. Technical advances and theoretical insights on the applica-
tion of in situ chemical oxidation are also presented in Chapter 4 (special thanks
to Dr. Fred Payne).
