The U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the N.Y.S. Department of Environmental Conservation have approved design work for the removal Action 5 pump-and-treat remediation system that will stop the migration of volatile organic compounds and remove them from groundwater near BNL's southern boundary.
Construction of the system is underway with operation expected to start on schedule by the end of this calendar year.
The pump-and-treat system extracts contaminated groundwater and pumps it to an "air stripping" facility where the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are separated from the water. The clean water is recharged (returned to the ground) and the VOCs are released into the air at a concentration below state and federal emission standards.
The system was introduced at a public meeting last January as one part of the overall groundwater cleanup plan for the Lab's southern boundary and south of the Lab, and received the public's endorsement. In addition to this remediation system, the plan also called for public water hook up (see hookupdate). The public expressed concern, however, about VOC emissions and requested that a filter be installed on the air stripper to further reduce VOC emissions. Evaluation of this option by the Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Environmental Conservation is continuing.
The final decision will be mailed to those on the Environmental Restoration Division mailing list. The decision will also be documented in he Responsiveness Summary, which will be in local information repositories (for locations, see page seven). Community questions and concerns are also documented in the Summary. It was expected to be complete and available to the public this spring, but now is expected this summer.