ESTCP 2016 Project-of-the-Year Award for Environmental Restoration
Successful delivery, placement, and effectiveness of in situ treatment materials in active harbors has the potential to reduce costs, shorten recovery times, and provide more effective alternatives to traditional methods of remediation for a wide range of sites with contaminated sediments. Traditional remediation of sediments has involved removal by dredging, or isolation by capping. Removal actions may cause increased mobility and bioavailability of the contaminated sediments, while physical capping may not be practical in active harbors and navigable waterways.
Dr. Bart Chadwick from SPAWAR Systems Center and his team led an ESTCP-funded project that aimed to demonstrate and validate the placement, stability, and performance of reactive amendments for treatment of contaminated sediments in active DOD harbor settings.
The team successfully demonstrated in situ remediation of surface sediment contaminated with hydrophobic organic compounds (HOCs) by placing a reactive amendment consisting of powdered activated carbon (PAC) at a site contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) located at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Washington. The PAC was successfully placed on the seafloor of a half-acre target site to sorb PCBs in sediments, thereby reducing bioavailability and limiting bioaccumulation of contaminants into the tissues of benthic invertebrates, and subsequently the food web.
Prior to this project, the majority of in situ sediment amendment efforts have been small, pilot-scale efforts in areas without significant limitations to access and generally targeted to low velocity waters with minimal vessel traffic or harbor activities. This project achieved the key goal of extending pilot-scale efforts to larger scale footprints in active DOD harbor areas with the additional challenge of remediation in deep water with high vessel traffic.
For this groundbreaking work, Dr. Chadwick received the 2016 ESTCP Project-of-the-Year Award for Environmental Restoration for their project titled Demonstration of In Situ Treatment with Reactive Amendments for Contaminated Sediments in Active DoD Harbors.
Project Team
- Bart Chadwick, Space and Naval warfare Systems Center Pacific
- Victoria Kirtay, Space and Naval warfare Systems Center Pacific
- Gunther Rosen, Space and Naval warfare Systems Center Pacific
- Marienne Colvin, Space and Naval warfare Systems Center Pacific
- Joel Guerrero, Space and Naval warfare Systems Center Pacific
- Lewis Hsu, Space and Naval warfare Systems Center Pacific
- Ernie Arias, Space and Naval warfare Systems Center Pacific
- Robert K. Johnston, Space and Naval warfare Systems Center Pacific
- Melissa Grover, Geosyntec Consultants
- Jennifer Arblaster, Geosyntec Consultants
- Jason Conder, Geosyntec Consultants
- Victor Magar, Ramboll Environ US Corporation
- Robb Webb, Dalton Olmstead and Fuglevand
- John Collins, AquaBlok Ltd.
- Joe Germano, Germano and Associates
- Anne Conrad, Hart Crowser
