em • feature
Controlled Vadose Saturation
by Stephen Koenigsberg,
Barbara Coughlin, Keith
Cole, and Gary Cronk
Stephen S. Koenigsberg,
Ph.D., is a principal, and
Barbara Coughlin, Ph.D.,
and Keith Cole, P.E., are
both senior managers,
all with ENVIRON
International. Gary Cronk,
P.E., is president of JAG
Consulting Group.
Note: Stephen Koenigsberg was
a principal with ENVIRON at the
time of this writing. He has since
taken a position of vice president
at Adventus Americas Inc. and is
retained by ENVIRON as a
principal consultant. E-mail:
stephen.koenigsberg@
adventusgroup.com.
Reference
1. Tiered Approach to Corrective
Action Objectives. TACO, Title
35 Illinois Administrative Code
Part 742.
12 em april 2010
Bringing Successful Saturated Zone
In-situ treatment technologies that involve the injection of chemical reagents to
achieve remediation of the contaminated saturated zone have evolved in less
than two decades to be a significant and widely-used site remediation strategy.
The reactions that are sought to neutralize compounds of concern encompass
either (a) biologically mediated oxidation or reduction enhanced by the application
of substrates that support the relevant microbial metabolism, or (b) direct chemical
reactions involving oxidants or reductants. Controlled Vadose Saturation and
Remediation (CVSR) is a nonproprietary strategy that is a long overdue advance-
ment of standard saturated zone practices to the unsaturated (or vadose) zone.
Unsaturated zone treatments are not new, but the matrix, allowing oxidation or reduction to
virtually all of them revolve around mechanical occur. The advantage of operating at field capacity
operations, such as soil vapor extraction that is that leaching to groundwater is avoided. CVSR is
remove volatile contaminants. When compounds best applied to problems with shallow contamina-
with limited volatility are involved, or if there are tion and/or for compounds like certain pesticides
problems with the infrastructure or cost that con- that are not volatile.
traindicate excavation and disposal options, there is
an opportunity for CVSR to be applied. Controlled Vadose Saturation
and Remediation
Whereas in conventional saturated zone treat- Below are two case studies involving successful
ments, a variety of direct injection techniques are CVSR application. In both cases, ENVIRON was
employed to deliver reagents; in CVSR, the focus retained by clients to perform necessary site inves-
is on achieving the same results by literally turning tigation activities. Per their working agreement,
the vadose zone into a saturated zone on a tem- ENVIRON must maintain client confidentiality.
porary basis. This can be achieved by introducing
liquids on or just below the surface using a gallery Case Study 1:
or permanent delivery wells. Active Manufacturing Facility in Illinois
ENVIRON was retained by a client to perform site
Hydraulic control is key to maintaining conditions investigation activities and implement additional
in the vadose zone that is being converted. Achiev- measures, as required, to obtain a comprehensive
ing field capacity (i.e., a state of soil saturation “no further remediation” (NFR) letter from the
where a maximum volume of water is held that Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
cannot be drained by gravity) is the objective. In under its Site Remediation Program. Using the
this condition, the water that is present envelopes methodologies presented in Tiered Approach to
the matrix particles where the contamination Corrective Action Objectives, 1 site-specific soil
resides, noting that there is no dissolved phase per remediation objectives were developed for the site.
se at the outset of treatment. The dissolved phase
is in effect created in the field capacity setting as The site contained an active manufacturing facility
constituents of concern (COCs) are released from used for the blending and packaging of various
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Copyright 2010 Air & Waste Management Association
and Remediation (CVSR)
Treatments to the Vadose Zone

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Copyright 2010 Air & Waste Management Association

Figure 1. Site layout for the
ISCO site, indicating the
treatment areas.
14 em april 2010
organic solvents. The site investigation activities
indicated that COCs in the soil and groundwater at
the site included various volatile organic compounds.
In particular, tetrachloroethene (PCE), toluene,
and xylenes were present at concentrations above
their respective soil saturation (Csat) limits in the
vadose zone. To obtain a NFR letter, all soil chemical
concentrations must be less than their respective
soil saturation limits. Two areas were identified with
concentrations above soil saturation limits: “Treat-
ment Area #1” and “Treatment Area #2”.
As shown in Figure 1, Treatment Area #1 encom-
passed an area outside of the building footprint
and an area located underneath the footprint of
the manufacturing area within the building. Treat-
ment Area #2 was outside, but adjacent to the
building in an active driveway/parking lot area of
the site.
Remedial options to address the contamination
were limited, since the facility was still active and it
would be economically infeasible to shutdown
Area #1
Area #2
Copyright 2010 Air & Waste Management Association
operations for invasive remedial activities such as
the excavation of the contaminated soils. Also, the
owner of the facility was considering possible property
transactions and needed the remedial actions to be
completed in a short time frame. The remedial
activities would need to have minimal impact on
the daily manufacturing activities at the site. Thus,
certain bioremediation techniques were excluded
from consideration.
The In-Situ Chemical Oxidation (ISCO) treatment
option employed was chosen because the active
remediation could be conducted with minimal
impact to the facility operations. Through the use of
horizontal drilling techniques, there were no inva-
sive activities conducted inside the manufacturing
facility. Outdoor activities were conducted in
coordination with the facility operations schedule
to minimize impacts to site operations.
Alkaline-activated sodium persulfate using sodium
hydroxide was used to treat the shallow soils to a
15-ft depth. Prior to the field injections, a soil
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buffering test was performed in the laboratory to
determine the amount of sodium hydroxide
needed to raise the pH of the soil to above 10.5
and maintain it there for two weeks.
To saturate the vadose zone, a combination of
injection wells and an infiltration gallery were
constructed to first percolate water in to achieve
saturation and then to inject oxidant. A total of 12
injection wells were installed in the two treatment
areas, along with the infiltration galleries. Due to
the presence of low-permeability silts and clays,
each injection well had an estimated radius of
influence of 10 ft. Approximately 4,700 gallons of
sodium hydroxide (25%) and 11,500 pounds of
sodium persulfate were injected into the wells over
a 20-day period. Concentrations of the COCs were
decreased by 88–99% within 180 days after the
first round of treatment.
Based on the comparison of the confirmation
sample results to the soil remediation objectives, a
second injection of activated persulfate was neces-
sary for Treatment Area #1, as xylene was detected
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at concentrations above the Csat level. For Treatment
Area #2, the ISCO injections lowered the soil
concentrations to below the Csat levels, such that
in conjunction with an engineered barrier, the
regulatory requirements for site closure were met.
During the second round of treatment, approxi-
mately 2,600 gallons of sodium hydroxide (25%)
and 7,480 pounds of sodium persulfate were
injected into the wells at Treatment Area #1 over
a 13-day period. Within 90 days, the concentrations
of the COCs were further decreased to concentra-
tions below the site-specific soil remediation objec-
tives and no further remediation was necessary
for this area.
A Remedial Action Completion Report (RACR) is
being prepared for the site and a NFR letter will
be requested for both treatment areas from the
Illinois EPA.
Case Study 2:
Cotton Mill-Turned-Fertilizer Plant in Georgia
The site of the second case study was an old
april 2010 em 15
Figure 2. Schematic of
bioremediation CVSR cell.
Figure 3. The bioremediation
CVSR cell being installed.
16 em april 2010
120’-0”
EXTENT OF EXCAVATION
PIEZOMETER VAULT 1-INCH DIA. PVC PIEZOMETER (TYP.)
(SEE DETAILS 3 & 4) GRASS 3-INCH DIA. PERFORATED PE PIPE
NATIVE SOIL BACKFILL
RIPPED/TILLED SOIL
+/- 9’-0”
SOIL MOISTURE PROBES (TYP.)
CVSR PILOT TEST AREA 2 PROFILE
not to scale
cotton mill in Georgia, dating back to the early
1900s, and through a gradual use conversion was
ultimately a pesticide and fertilizer manufacturing
and distribution center. The major COCs were
pesticides DDT/DDX, toxaphene, various benzene
hexachlorides (BHCs), and some chlorinated
solvents like PCE. Various mixing pits, elevators,
kettles, and bins were used in production of the
batch formulations for the pesticides and fertilizers,
and runoff from the mixing pits was ultimately
discharged to the land. Jurisdictional regulatory
authorities ordered a full remedial investigation of the
soil, groundwater, and nearby creek sediments at the
site, leading to a delineation of the contamination.
CVSR was chosen to address some of the appro-
priate zones of surficial vadose zone contamination.
DDT was the major target, with concentrations are
as high as 200 parts per million (ppm) in the soil
profile; the closure target is 4 ppm. A successful
application of CVSR in contrast to the extant
dig-and-haul option would potentially save the
client more than $10 million dollars.
This specific application of CVSR employed anaer-
obic bioremediation. The technique is being piloted
Copyright 2010 Air & Waste Management Association
DEPTH BELOW GROUND
SURFACE (BGS)
GEOTEXTILE FABRIC FILTER FABRIC
ON GRAVEL BEDDING JUNCTION BOX
1’-0”
GRAVEL BEDDING
2’-0”
3-INCH DIA. SOLID SCH 80 PVC PIPE
5’-0”
using sodium lactate as the electron-donor at a
delivered in-situ concentration of 5,000 ppm. The
saturated soils support the anaerobic environment
and the flooding from an infiltration gallery can be
regulated through a feedback loop that employs
moisture sensors placed at the maximum depth
the saturation must penetrate or be allowed to
penetrate. Details of the design are illustrated in
Figures 2 and 3.
As the liquid matrix slowly drains over time and
evaporation occurs, more solution may be injected
to ensure that the anaerobic environment remains
intact with a proper supply of sodium lactate. The
efficacy of the system will be monitored over a
period of one year and full-scale implementation
across the site will be executed, as a function of the
success of the pilot test that is currently underway.
Summary
CVSR is anticipated to be a growing and evolving
methodology for the treatment of contaminated,
shallow unsaturated zones. The two examples
presented here are our first work using this strategy.
In the chemical oxidation example, the choice of
CVSR was mediated by infrastructural considera-
tions and the client’s need for a more rapid closure
than can be afforded by bioremediation (albeit at
a higher cost). In the pesticide application, biore-
mediation was chosen because time was not an
issue, which helps control costs, but more impor-
tantly, the excavation and disposal actions were
daunting for the client. Also, the bioremediation of
complex pesticides was considered a better
approach relative to the fact that the oxidation of
these kinds of compounds can generate uncer-
tainty regarding the nature of intermediates. em
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