Dry Cleaner Remediation
Situation
A Dry Cleaning client hired CA RICH to clean up the contaminated soil and groundwater beneath their property. CA RICH used a conventional cleanup technology – air sparging and soil vapor extraction – to address the problem. Most of the groundwater contamination responded positively, but one location continued to show contamination despite repeated treatment.
Situation
CA RICH recommended injecting a chemical oxidant, permanganate, to address the residual contamination. Although permanganate had been used for several years in the wastewater industry, it had limited trials in subsurface applications. While the client was amenable, regulatory agencies expressed concern with an unproven technology in a populated residential suburban area that relied upon groundwater resources for drinking water purposes. CA RICH developed a public education program including vendor specifications, which facilitated approval of the recommended treatment method by the regulatory agency. This prescriptive remedy, permanganate injection, effectively destroyed the contaminants in-place without degrading the surrounding groundwater quality. This technology is now considered a presumtive remedy and is widely used Nationwide.