Placement of AquaBlok, Ltd.’s High-Value Treatment Materials for Sediment Remediation Provide Cost Reduction and Improved Remedy Performance
Recent projects utilizing the manufacturing company's adsorptive or reactive treatment materials have shown a reduction in both cost and contaminant concentrations.
Recent projects involving treatment materials as the key element of a remedy to remediate contaminated sediments have demonstrated significant cost reduction and improved performance.
The use of adsorptive or reactive treatment materials has become widely accepted due to their proven ability to reduce pore water concentrations of target contaminants, which result in reduced tissue concentrations of benthic species that are critical to the food-chain. AquaGate, a powder-coated composite particle system manufactured by AquaBlok, Ltd., is an effective delivery technology to place these relatively expensive treatment materials in a controlled manner under difficult conditions. In contrast, recent comparative demonstrations of alternative delivery technologies indicate that up to, and exceeding, a 30% loss of high-value materials can take place when bulk granular forms of treatment materials are mixed and placed through a water column.
Critical aspects of placement to be considered include:
Uniformity – Will the treatment material separate from the mixture, which is often sand, in a water column? Will it reach the sediments in the manner intended? Non-uniformity can be in both vertical (thickness) and horizontal (aerial) extent of the target placement area.
Quantity of Treatment Material – Can practical field technologies be used to verify that the targeted quantity (i.e. pounds per square foot) was achieved? Have procedures been identified in advance that will allow for verification that the designed application was achieved?
The ability to confirm that the above characteristics of installed material meets the design intents is critical to successful remediation. If not achieved, the potential for project success is compromised.
Placement verification for a AquaGate+Organoclay reactive cap, post-placement, has been demonstrated through a series of field measurements and tests. Results demonstrated that the AquaGate approach to delivery of treatment materials can readily achieve the project design objectives. Specifically, post-placement samples recovered from a full-scale river application using both cores and buckets determined that the treatment material was distributed uniformly over the thickness and that the quantity of treatment material was achieved in the as-placed cap.
Similarly, a separate project demonstrated that AquaGate+PAC could deliver powdered activated carbon through a water column with no material losses as opposed to an alternative approach where 25% more treatment material had to be used in order to achieve the target application of activated carbon.
For more information, contact AquaBlok, Ltd.
About AquaBlok, Ltd.
AquaBlok, Ltd. is a manufacturer of composite materials utilizing its patented coating and amendment approach. The company has a long history of successful projects in the environmental industry and provides a range of products utilized in in-situ groundwater and surface water treatment and sediment remediation applications.