Contaminated site remediation professionals will gather at the Florida Remediation Conference in Fort Lauderdale to discuss soil and groundwater cleanup efforts in Southern Florida.  On Thursday, May 9th, Drew Baird, East Region Manager for REGENESIS, will give an insightful platform presentation on Post-Active Remediation Monitoring (PARM). The formal title of the talk is Can we PARM Yet? Groundwater Quality after Remediation at Multiple Sites in Florida.

Presentation overview:

In Situ chemical oxidation (ISCO) and enhanced aerobic bioremediation (EAB) are proven, cost-effective, and widely-applied methods for contaminant mass depletion, plume stabilization, and site closure. A common challenge on projects where ISCO and EAB have been employed is the transition from active remediation to Post-Active Remediation Monitoring (PARM), as entry into PARM can be delayed due to Florida DEP guidance on groundwater monitoring. Various monitoring parameters (DO, ORP, pH, among others) are important for determining the distribution and/or longevity of ISCO and EAB amendments and are therefore critical interpreting treatment performance. Other parameters (TDS and other inorganics) may be indicators of distribution but more often measure the effects of the applied chemicals on groundwater quality, and many have state/federal limits in drinking water. There is some overlap between remediation performance parameters and groundwater quality parameters, but current Florida DEP guidance does not differentiate between remediation performance parameters and ground water quality parameters. The lack of differentiation directly affects transition into PARM. This presentation will evaluate groundwater quality data from sites where ISCO and/or EAB have been employed to treat PHCs in Florida and to clarify the role of various constituents in ISCO/EAB processes. Site examples include a former roadside spill in Broward County, Citrus County, and Miami-Dade County. At all three sites, entry into PARM was delayed due to the presence of various parameters that have little, if any, bearing on active remediation. Many of these parameters are indicators of residual presence of injected fluids but do not indicate that the active components – i.e., those product constituents responsible for hydrocarbon treatment – remained within the Zone of Discharge.

For more information on this presentation, Drew Baird can be reached at dbaird@regenesis.com and for info on the Florida Remediation Conference, please visit https://www.enviro-net.com/documents/frcsouth2013-reginfo.pdf