PARENT SESSION

1D - Soil and Sediment Contamination
Poster Hall
8:30 AM - Tuesday, 29 April 2003
Chair: Van Noort, P.¹, ¹
Co-chair: Gerhardt, A.², Gerhardt, A.², ²

(TUP/24) Full-scale solid-phase bioremediation of soil containing organic explosive compounds.

Phillips, Theresa¹, Seech, Alan¹, Bell, Geoff¹, Raymond, David¹, Harlow, Jeff², Howe, Kevin³, ¹ Adventus Remediation Technologies, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada² Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Norfolk, Virginia, USA³ US Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha, Nebraska, USA

ABSTRACT- A solid-phase bioremediation technology, developed by Adventus Remediation Technologies, has been successfully applied to soils containing explosive compounds at several US Department of Defense sites. The treatment protocol involves application of small quantities of proprietary organic and inorganic soil amendments to facilitate reductive (anoxic) degradation of nitroaromatic compounds. The organic amendments are prepared from natural plant materials and are processed to provide specific particle size distribution, nutrient profile and nutrient release kinetics. In October 2001, treatment of approximately 8,000 tons of organic explosive impacted soil, at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant (IAAAP) in Middletown, Iowa, was completed. Soil was treated in two HDPE-lined land treatment units identified as Trench 6 and Trench 7. Following 58 days of treatment, mean RDX, HMX, and TNT concentrations were reduced from 1,530, 1,112 and 96 mg/kg to 16, 85 and 6 mg/kg, respectively. This corresponds to removal and destruction efficiencies of 99%, 92%, and 94%. At the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station in Yorktown Virginia, in July 2001, treatment of approximately 1,200 tons of organic explosives-impacted sediment was completed. The sediment was treated in an engineered biotreatment cell enclosed by a polyethylene-covered greenhouse. Following 232 days of treatment, mean TNT, DNT, and RDX concentrations were reduced from 9,906, 1,453 and 255 mg/kg to 5, 6 and 1 mg/kg, respectively. These values correspond to removal and destruction efficiencies exceeding 99% for TNT, DNT, and RDX. Results from the IAAAP and Yorktown projects indicate that this technology provides an effective approach for bioremediation of explosive impacted soils at a large scale.

Key words: nitroaromatics, bioremediation, biotechnology, explosives