Remediation Can Keep Your Service Station Looking New

Remediation Can Keep Your Service Station Looking New

These days the service stations being built have quite the curb appeal.  I have noticed in the southeast QT® (i.e. Quick Trip) has built a number of facilities with quite a nice layout and beautiful landscaping.  These stores are very clean and have just about everything you need to get in a single stop.  I realize many of those reading this blog are environmental consultants who don’t own service stations, but you do have Clients who own them.

LEAK ASSESSMENTS
When a gasoline leak occurs at one of these new stations, the work that is required to fix the leak systematically destroys the appearance of these stations. There is no getting around doing the assessment to determine the impact of the release, but when it comes to remediation the choices are broad.

Some of the most successful cleanups I was involved in used Sparge\Vent technology.  This meant installing numerous Sparge wells and Vent wells, and cutting up that beautiful smooth pavement to install the underground lines between the wells and the equipment building.  These systems were quite effective, but noisy, smelly and not so pretty.  This is not what you want to see, hear and smell when you are pulling off the road to stretch, gets some gas, and a quick bite to eat.  The typical systems will be operated for a period of 2 to 5 years before being decommissioned.  But what if you didn’t have to install those wells and cut trenches through all that smooth pavement?

MONITORING WELL REMEDIATION
I know in the last two decades there have been a lot of snake oil salesmen offering to pour different concoctions into your monitoring wells to make your problems go away.  Most of the time all that happened good money was wasted, and in some cases, these concoctions made matters worse.  In some States, like South Carolina, pouring chemicals or bacteria into monitoring wells is not allowed.

However, what if you could remediate your site without using your monitoring wells for anything but monitoring?  You can – and it is not snake oil.  What I am talking about is cleaning up your site using a special blend of activated carbon in a carbon based injectate (CBI) and the indigenous bacteria.  This CBI is injected by direct push technology into the impacted formation to sequester the contaminants and allow the naturally occurring bacteria to do its job.  This is the way Mother Nature handles contaminants and does not require trenches, remediation wells and equipment compounds.  It is also relatively fast compared to other technologies and typically a lot cheaper.  It is not a solution for all sites, but no remediation technology is. If you are interested in getting more information about this technology contact [email protected].

Brian E Chew Sr. P.G.
Principal Hydrogeologist

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