By Seth Preston, Communications Manager, Toxics Cleanup Program
Experts are tossing out ideas for possible cleanup and/or containment of contamination at the Wyckoff site.
You can review their presentations here. (Scroll down until you see “presentations” under the entry for Jan. 12-14.)
Here are a few highlights from the morning presentations:
Michael Kavanaugh from Malcolm Pirnie Inc. in Emeryville, CA, offered four different possible solutions. They included using heat or steam for removing some contamination; enhanced containment with some removal; improving the stabilization of the material while also enhancing containment; and essentially burning the material in place.
Ralph Baker of TerraTherm Inc. of Fitchburg, MA, recommended using a combination of two heating levels – one below the boiling point of water, the other around that point. Ralph (shown in the photo) says that will reduce some contamination, plus keeping the remaining material from moving around.
Costs of all these scenarios range widely. And there are questions about how practical they are, since power supply for heating is limited at the Wyckoff site.
Tim Nord, Ecology’s lands and aquatics lands cleanup manager, laid the groundwork before the presentations started.
Nord noted panel members are encouraged to focus on “solving the environmental problem,” without worrying about costs or regulations. Those considerations will be factored in as we move forward.
“This is a big deal to us. And the Wyckoff site is a very complicated site,” he said.
Experts are tossing out ideas for possible cleanup and/or containment of contamination at the Wyckoff site.
You can review their presentations here. (Scroll down until you see “presentations” under the entry for Jan. 12-14.)
Here are a few highlights from the morning presentations:
Michael Kavanaugh from Malcolm Pirnie Inc. in Emeryville, CA, offered four different possible solutions. They included using heat or steam for removing some contamination; enhanced containment with some removal; improving the stabilization of the material while also enhancing containment; and essentially burning the material in place.
Ralph Baker of TerraTherm Inc. of Fitchburg, MA, recommended using a combination of two heating levels – one below the boiling point of water, the other around that point. Ralph (shown in the photo) says that will reduce some contamination, plus keeping the remaining material from moving around.
Costs of all these scenarios range widely. And there are questions about how practical they are, since power supply for heating is limited at the Wyckoff site.
Tim Nord, Ecology’s lands and aquatics lands cleanup manager, laid the groundwork before the presentations started.
Nord noted panel members are encouraged to focus on “solving the environmental problem,” without worrying about costs or regulations. Those considerations will be factored in as we move forward.
“This is a big deal to us. And the Wyckoff site is a very complicated site,” he said.
I’ll be back with more. Remember, you can follow and join in the discussion at www.twitter.com/wyckoffgen.
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