Italian Environmental Engineer Visits BNL to Learn about Groundwater Cleanup and Other Environmental Programs

Under the auspices of the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Program, Stefano Ciafani, an environmental engineer from the Science Office of Legambiente (Environmental League) toured Brookhaven National Laboratory in February to learn about the Lab’s programs in environmental cleanup and waste management.  Ciafani is also a consultant to the Italian Parliamentary Commission on Waste Recycling.  His stop at BNL was part of a three-week, nationwide tour of environmental-cleanup facilities in order to learn about related remediation technologies.

Headquartered in Rome, Legambiente is a non-profit environmental organization whose objectives include consulting with the Italian government to institute leading-edge groundwater cleanup programs and other environmental reforms. 

While touring BNL’s groundwater cleanup program, Ciafani remarked that Italy utilizes groundwater extensively as does Long Island, but Italy is lagging behind the U.S. substantially in terms of implementing groundwater investigations and cleanup technologies.  Along with the other technologies he studied on his three-week tour, Ciafani hopes to present what he learned about BNL’s groundwater program to the Italian government as an example of a way to implement a groundwater cleanup program in Italy.

Besides learning about groundwater cleanup, Ciafani toured other facilities onsite where he learned about macrobial transformation of waste by bioremediation, the use of tracer gases for environmental remediation, and the operation of the new hazardous waste management facility.

	Groundwater Projects Group Manager Bob Howe observes carbon vessels at an offsite groundwater treatment building, as Groundwater Project Manager Vincent Racaniello (far back) explains groundwater cleanup technology to Stefano Ciafani, visiting Environmental Consultant, through State Department Interpreter Gene Vricella.
	Environmental Consultant Stefano Ciafani learns about in-well air-stripping technology to clean groundwater contaminated with volatile organic compounds. From left are: Groundwater Project Manager Vincent Racaniello, Stefano Ciafani, State Department Interpreter Gene Vricella, Groundwater Projects Group Manager Bob Howe, and Field Engineer Eric Kramer.
	Inside the newly constructed groundwater treatment system tucked away at an offsite industrial park, Stefano Ciafani, an environmental engineer and consultant to the Italian Parliamentary Commission on Waste Recycling, learns how granulated carbon is used to absorb contaminants from groundwater. The new groundwater treatment building, running in test-mode in February, is cleaning groundwater at depths of nearly 300 feet below the surface. By May of 2004, this system is expected to be running at full capacity cleaning contaminated groundwater at a rate of 160 gallons per minute.  From right are: Groundwater Project Manager Vincent Racaniello, State Department Interpreter Gene Vricella, Stefano Ciafani, and Groundwater Projects Group Manager Bob Howe. Not pictured is Michael Hauptmann, groundwater project manager for the Industrial Park East Groundwater Treatment System.