The creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970 and the identification of Superfund sites in 1981 launched the start of private companies devoted to working with federal authorities to help clean up these sites. One of these organizations, Xpert Design and Diagnostics (XDD) was co-founded in 1997 by Mike Marley in Stratham, NH.
In November 2004, senior project manager, Matt Walsh, joined XDD and
he and Marley continued to work at a Superfund site in New Jersey both
had been working on previously. In this case, the site was contaminated
with toxic solvents Toluene, Ethyl benzene and Xylene compounds, all of
which may have an adverse affect on the human nervous system.
In October 1996, Marley became familiar with the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center (NFESC) at Port Hueneme, CA and Andrew Drucker, one of the environmental engineers at the facility. In March 2003, over six years after their first meeting, Drucker contacted Marley to discuss the Adjustable Depth Air Sparging (ADAS) system his lab was developing.
Air sparging is a cleanup method that injects air into soils and groundwater contaminated with petroleum products and/or chemical solvents. The injected air vaporizes the toxins and a vapor extraction system is used to capture the vaporized contaminants. The vapors are treated and released into the environment as clean air. Just as with conventional sparging systems, the ADAS system requires a soil vapor extraction system to capture and treat the vapor in air sparging applications.
Unlike conventional air sparging systems, however, the ADAS system can be adjusted for depth. Conventional air sparging systems utilize wells that are fixed at one sparge area depth of only two to three feet, so air is injected at a single depth. Drucker's ADAS system removes contaminants using the same sparging method, however, it offers a major advantage since it can be manually raised and lowered in the well without the time and expense of using a drill rig.
The New Jersey Superfund site offered some special challenges in that the some of the contaminants were lodged in sandy layers sandwiched between silt and clay, making it difficult for air to permeate the area. "Thirty to forty percent of the wells we installed needed at least one, and sometimes two, adjustments in order to eventually get sparging air where we needed it to go to affect clean-up," recalled Walsh.
This meant the drill rig got more than its usual workout, driving up costs - in this case, costs financed by federal taxpayer money. The ADAS system seemed the perfect solution to the challenges presented at the site and the site seemed a perfect place to test it.
XDD decided to license and test the ADAS system. During this process, the company realized that they also needed resources to fund the testing of the ADAS system and they needed them quickly, since the site was close to total remediation.
They turned to CCAT for help. Since CCAT had helped NFESC with the commercialization process of some of their other technologies, the two organizations were clearly familiar with each other. NFESC applied for funding from CCAT in the summer of 2005. At the same time the license agreement concluded in September 2005, NFESC and XDD learned that CCAT had approved a request for $10,000 to be used for the test process.
In February 2006, XDD set up one well using the ADAS system for one month of testing to gather field-verified data and performance. After test data was collected, XDD left the ADAS system in place to continue clean-up operations through the end of 2006.
The ADAS test report noted that the equipment outperformed conventional sparging wells from both a cost and time standpoint. "From a field-operability perspective, Andy's system performed better because operators could go out and adjust the sparging level on that well at any time, whereas the other wells required a drill rig to move them," Walsh said.
As a result of its successful testing, the ADAS technology will continue to be used by XDD as the company carries on its mission to provide the best strategic solutions for environmentally compromised property. "XDD will continue to use our expertise to offer a comprehensive approach in remediation strategy in order to limit customer liability and provide a cleaner and safer environment for everyone," concluded Marley.
For more information, please contact:
Tom Sheffer, CCAT Program Director
SDSU Research Foundation
E-mail: tsheffer@foundation.sdsu.edu
Phone: (619) 594-4135 / Fax: (619) 594-5774