Combined Remedies Approach Addresses Contaminants at a Former NJ Lock Manufacturing Site

Video Transcript

Narrator: When first developed in 1873, Garfield New Jersey, then known as East Passaic, was a small rural, home to a culturally diverse community of immigrants, officially named in 1881 after U.S. President James Garfield following his assassination.

Garfield established itself as an industrial and manufacturing city, with the host of machining and tooling operations. It was also home to a former lock manufacturer made popular by combination locks used in traditional briefcases and padlocks. Operations had utilized chlorinated solvents as decreasing agents in the lock manufacturing process prior to shuttering operations.

Over time, the solvents seeped through the wooden manufacturing floor to impact soil and groundwater. The contamination extended through the silty sand to sandy clay, unconsolidated soil and into the shale/aquifer indigenous to the Passaic region.

Through the years, remedial activities have included soil removal and a sub-slab depressurization system installed to mitigate vapor intrusion concerns. In 2014, an ISCO approach was taken using Regenesis PersulfOx Catalyze sodium persulfate to treat the affected groundwater as a step toward fully remediating the site for future redevelopment. The application of the amendment was successful in knocking down contaminants to reach the low imminent environmental concern conditions.

The client, a real estate developer intent on completing a pending real estate transaction, is focused on eliminating liability and risk by addressing the levels of contaminants quickly and effectively.

Advanced Geoservices Corporation, a leading environmental consulting firm based in Westchester, Pennsylvania with clients throughout the Northeast was familiar with Regenesis track record for success with similar sites and recommended a combined remedial approach using PersulfOx, PlumeStop, and HRC.

Drawing from the success of the first application of PersulfOx, Advanced Geoservices decided to incorporate another application of PersulfOx to treat the former hot spot containing CVOCs at 12 ppm in groundwater. In addition to the PersulfOx amendment, two down gradient PlumeStop liquid activated carbon barriers were installed to manage CVOC migration.

HRC, a soluble electron donor was also installed to promote biodegradation within the PlumeStop barriers. The barriers are designed to protect a nearby cold rooted stream and down gradient residential community.

The site design provided by Regenesis includes a subsequent PlumeStop grid injection in the former hotspot area following the PersulfOx application to effectively manage mass flux toward the down gradient treatment barriers.

Since the area was well-established with existing building surrounding the impacted areas and a sewer utility present under the active valley, a strategic design was required to effectively mitigate the contaminated area with little to no disruption to ongoing businesses and tractor-trailer deliveries.

Joseph: I tend to specialize in a highly complex Remediation projects particularly chlorinated solvents. It was the PlumeStop product that’s available exclusively through Regenesis. That was the best fit for this particular project.

Narrator: Advanced Geoservices felt confident in choosing Regenesis Remediation Services division or RRS to perform the work.

Joseph: The injection team is far better than most of the other teams I’ve used using drillers exclusively bringing in Regenesis to run the trailers and run the pumps. It allowed us, at least, double productions being able to inject three, four points at a time versus one or two.

This is the second project that I’ve done with Regenesis on this site by a very positive experience first time doing a persulfate injection, so that was an easy choice to come back and get Regenesis involvement in this project again and see what their ideas and what product they felt with the best fit for this particular project.

Gordon: The major goal on this site was to reduce groundwater concentrations in the vicinity of the source area, so that the client was able to enter into a Classification Exception Area under New Jersey DEP criteria.

Narrator: The effects of the combined amendment and installation of the two barriers were an effective solution to help reach the client’s goals and polish off the site.

Joseph: We looked at several different meditation technologies and we felt due to the site limitations, the timetable required and costs that the PlumeStop was the best fit.