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Plant cleanup to try out cutting-edge treatments
By MAUREEN BYRNE AHERN SEMINOLE -- Back in the days when the United States was fighting the Cold War with the Soviets, triggers for nuclear bombs were made in a facility on the corner of Bryan Dairy and Belcher roads. The plant stopped producing weapons components in 1994 and was sold to Pinellas County the following year. Today, the once top-secret plant surrounded by barbed wire is a busy industrial park called the Young-Rainey STAR (Science, Technology and Research) Center. The triggering devices are long gone, but cleaning solvents and oils used to manufacture them linger underground in 31/2 acres of the northeast corner of the 100-acre property, where piles of rusty drums leaked throughout the years. Despite cleanup actions, including excavating and removing buried drums containing chemicals, contaminants persist in the groundwater. "The contamination is under control," said David Ingle, a U.S Department of Energy environmental restoration manager assigned to the center in 1986. "There is no potential for human exposure unless we don't do anything and don't treat it." Beginning next week, the DOE, which owned the plant from 1957 to 1995, will try a different method to remove pollutants from a 3/4-acre section of the contaminated area. Instead of continuing with the conventional pumping method, workers will start a $3.5-million project that uses a combination of two innovative technologies -- steam injection and electrical heating -- to remove the chemicals. "The contaminants are typical industrial solvents used at auto shops or gas stations," Dingle said. They were used for decades to clean the parts made at the plant. The DOE, responsible for removing the pollutants, is overseeing the 41/2-month operation, part of the Pinellas Environmental Restoration Project. The federal agency discovered contaminants in the soil and groundwater in 1987. "But with the levels we had, and the fact that we had it under control, it didn't warrant any type of emergency cleanup," Ingle said. Since 1990, the groundwater has been treated through a pump system. Yet in 1998, workers discovered that the pollutants had become a gooey mess. No longer dissolving into water pumped out of the ground, the contaminants cling to the ground. "It's kind of like a soupy underground," Ingle said. "The materials just don't break down very easily." "So we do have a problem here," said Joe Daniel, a project manager with S.M. Stoller, a Colorado-based environmental company that the DOE contracted for the project. Scientists say the contaminants eventually will mix with groundwater, but could take decades because of their limited solubility. They also may break down and form other hazardous substances that can harm people, increase cleanup costs and limit land use. Dingle and others looked for a faster cleanup method. That's where the steam and electrical technologies come into play. The steam injection process uses boilers to generate steam, which is then pumped into injection wells placed in the ground surrounding the contaminants. Used in conjunction with electrical heating, the steam front converts the contaminants to a vapor, allowing them to move more readily through the soil. The steam front continues to push the contaminants toward a central network of wells for removal and prevents movement of the contaminants outside the treatment zone. "It's kind of like an invisible fence," Ingle said. During the project, 20 to 30 gallons of water would be sucked out of the ground every minute, said Dacre Bush, a project manager for Steam Tech Environmental Services, a California company hired to do the work. The vapors are treated on site, and the water is taken away for treatment. Technicians will sample the groundwater and soil for up to six months after the operation phase is complete. If the project is a success, workers will use the steam and electrical processes on the remaining 2 3/4 contaminated acres.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks Jeff Webb Letters |
