Performance, Cost, and Carbon Footprint Analysis for Groundwater Remediation Strategies

Historically, approaches to contaminated site closure in Florida have not fully considered sustainability concepts when making decisions regarding remediation strategy and technology selection.  Although these concepts are not new, an increasing focus on sustainability for environmental remediation is a result of Federal, State, and local government initiatives and policy directives.  Prevailing contemporary guidance for sustainability metrics include, at a minimum, energy use, air emissions, water impacts, materials use (materials management and waste reduction), and land and ecosystem protection.

For this presentation, several chemical injection implementations and case studies in South Florida will be profiled for remediation performance, cost effectiveness, and sustainability (green) metrics including local carbon footprint analysis (energy and air emissions).  Remediation strategies included chemical oxidation or biostimulation through reagent application for treatment of petroleum hydrocarbon contaminants.  The chemical injections were performed within the last five years and in some cases were performed subsequent to conventional remediation strategies, such as air sparging and soil vapor extraction, thereby allowing for site specific comparison of metrics in relation to technology application and performance monitoring.  With the benefit of hindsight, an increased awareness of sustainability concepts, and the development of green remediation metrics, we can evaluate and quantify the benefits of less intrusive remediation strategies within a current context of overall environmental and economic impacts.  While the prevention and remediation contamination is inherently “green”, through the evaluation of these case studies we will be able to explore just how green purported “green” remediation strategies really are in comparison with conventionally utilized technologies through comparison of quantifiable metrics rather than generic qualitative assumptions.