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Soil/Ground Water Remediation

Ground water contamination may be caused by leaking underground storage tanks, improperly designed landfills, or historical operating practices. Remedial investigations have been conducted in the states of Nebraska, Louisiana, Texas, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, California, Massachusetts, Ohio, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and New York. These investigations vary in scope from shallow (less than 20 feet) ground water contamination problems to those affecting aquifers up to 200 feet in depth. Contaminants investigated and/or remediated include coal tar from former manufactured gas plants, petroleum products, halogenated solvents, non-halogenated solvents, chlorides, and pharmaceutical products. Preparation of Remedial Investigations, Feasibility Studies, Remedial Actions Plans, and various documents for various state programs have been completed.

A phased approach has been beneficial in correctly identifying the magnitude of the problem in a cost-effective manner. Usually the first step is a site evaluation in which waste storage and disposal practices are reviewed, land and water potential contamination routes are identified, and regulatory constraints determined. Source removal has been consistently shown to be the key in cost-effective ground water remediation, followed by natural attenuation. These situations typically require monitoring wells, soil boring and sampling, and leachate collection. Remedial investigation reports summarize the results as well as presenting clean-up alternatives and cost analyses. Interfacing with regulatory representatives has been essential in each instance.

Full-scale remediation systems designed by the firm include:

emulsified zero valent iron (EZVI)
free product recovery systems, both active and passive
sparging in combination with soil vapor extraction
in situ biological treatment (both aerobic and anaerobic activated carbon and/or air stipping)
pump and treat systems utilizing both biological reactors

Huff & Huff, Inc. is one of six license holdeers nationally from NASA for the manufacture and application of EZVI for remediating chlorinated solvent sites. Through 2007, the company has successfully injected EZVI at six sites, with reductions in source area concentrations of over 90% in typically twelve months. This technology has proven to be very cost effective on destroying source area contamination.

Chlorinated solvents, carbon tetrachloride, PCE, and TCE, have been successfully de-chlorinated in situ and using a withdrawal/injection approach utilizing cometabolic anaerobic processes developed by the firm. Reductions greater than 90% have been achieved in under 1 year of initiation.

The firm's unique horizontal boring technology for installing vapor extraction lines provides a superior cost-effective approach for ground water extraction in low permeable soils to the conventional recovery wells. We have consistently achieved in excess of 90% reduction of contaminates in the ground water with this technology. In addition, free product removal through the use of the horizontal vapor extraction laterals has been used very effectively at numerous sites.

Remediation programs designed by the firm have proven to be cost-effective. Soils contaminated with pesticides (2,4-D and 2,4,5- T) were successfully biologically degraded using an in situ biological treatment system designed by Huff & Huff.

See Engineering Awards for more information on EZVI.