From the May 10, 2007 issue of the SUN
By Sean McAlindin
SUN Staff Writer
After several more months of delays, tests have begun again at the North Railroad Avenue Superfund cleanup project.
The state Environment Department, in conjunction with engineering firms AMEC and INTERA, began a pilot test of the ground water remediation system May 1.
The test is designed to discern which of three organic compounds will most effectively abate the 58-acre plume of toxic waste slowly flowing beneath Española's old main street area, Department Project Manager Steve Jetter said.
Cleanup of the contamination, which will take an estimated 30 to 40 years, had been delayed several months due to the adoption of a new cleanup approach and repeated miscues within the system of computers, dials, pipes and pumps at the treatment station.
"There's bound to be some tinkering and troubleshooting, but that's not unusual for any kind of project like this," AMEC engineer Peter Guerra said.
Over the next nine months, engineers will be cycling compounds throughout the system of pipes and wells situated within the pollution source behind Norge Town Laundry and Dry Cleaners on North Railroad Avenue to compile scientific data.
"We're looking at injecting three different "bioamendments" and measuring parameters, basically degrees in contamination concentration, and seeing which one of these amendments provides the best results," INTERA engineer Jim Joseph said.
Currently, the team is running a tracer test with a bromide solution to track the flow of chemicals through the system.
The "bioamendments" that will be injected into the system later this month include emulsified vegetable oil and two milk derivatives, mozzarella cheese whey and ethyl lactate, Jetter said.
While this remediation strategy is somewhat experimental, prior case studies in North Carolina and California have shown these carbon-based amendments react with naturally occurring bacteria, thereby speeding up the bacteria's breakdown of contaminants like the tetrachloroethylene which inhabits the mile-long plume underneath the city, Army Chemical Review and Remediation Sciences, Inc. reports state.
"It's somewhat innovative. They've all been used before, but there's not a lot of case studies on them," Joseph said.
After compiling data on the progress of each amendment, the team will select the most effective one to be used throughout the entire system of 90 wells which encompasses the majority of Española's west side and parts of Santa Clara Pueblo. Full system operation is scheduled to begin in March 2008.
The pilot test was created after a bid to clean up the contamination with a surfactant, or soap, failed because of a sloping clay plate under the site which prohibited containment.
"We didn't know if we would be able to maintain capture on the surfactant and the product it released," Jetter had said at the time.
Experiment
In an ironic twist, areas of contamination found near the Circle K gasoline station formerly operating near the Plaza de Española have decayed faster because of the way gasoline reacts with the naturally occurring bacteria in the soil and ground water.
"In two places, we have seen enhanced biodegradation from the gasoline," Guerra said. "That's a good amendment that's got a lot of properties that would work, but we couldn't use gasoline because it's toxic itself."
At the ultimate source of the contamination is a pit directly behind Norge Town where former laundromat owners discarded dry cleaning chemicals directly into the ground for years, the engineers are considering using hydrogen gas to break down the tetrachloroethylene, Jetter said. But this process has yet to be finalized.
Jetter estimates it will take about 12 years to clean up the contamination at the source area.
"If we cut off the head, the severely contaminated part, we can prevent the source from continuing contamination," he said.
Then it will take another 30 years or so to finish of the rest of the plume, according to the Department.
From Norge Town, the plume flows in a southeasterly direction toward the Rio Grande. Over the years, concerns have been raised about potential contamination to the river. However, subsequent testing by the Department has found no abnormal levels of tetrachloroethylene in the three wells along the river bank, Jetter said.
"Nothing above standards by the Rio Grande - we have no emulsion by the river," Jetter said.
The Superfund site was "discovered" in 1989, but did not receive funding until 2005.
It took about 20 months to construct the system at a cost of $4 million, with 90 percent coming from the federal government and 10 percent from the state, a Department press release states.
The Department estimates it will cost about another $8 million over the next 30 years to continue managing the cleanup process, Jetter said.
The contamination has put neighboring residents at risk to cancer and neurological diseases, Robert Knowles, a scientist at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, said.
During the years before the site was discovered and the surrounding city wells shut down, contamination seeped into the ground water aquifer and was pumped throughout the city's water system, Española Water Director Marvin Martinez said. At least 280 million gallons of water have been contaminated since the 1980s, a 2005 SUN report states.
Economic development in Española's mainstreet area has slowed to a crawl due to the complications associated with the site. Any construction has the potential to disturb the contamination, so developers, including the state Highway Department, have delayed projects for fear of encumbering liability for the spread of the pollution, city Planning Director Cyrus Samii said.
For more information and history on the Superfund site in Española, click here.
