Chlorinated solvents as well as other widely used dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) pose serious long-term groundwater contamination problems in the United States and in
other industrialized countries.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD),
and the U.S. Air Force formed the Interagency DNAPL Consortium (IDC) in order to conduct comparative demonstrations of DNAPL remediation technologies. From 1998-2001, the IICER staff
provided technical support to the IDC and field engineering management to the technology demonstrations conducted at Launch Complex 34.
In the photo (right) is Laymon Gray, an environmental engineer with the IICER and the IDC Field Project Manager. Mr. Gray is shown assisting with the installation of multi-level samplers for
radon tracer tests using a Cone Penetrometer. The IDC demonstrated three promising DNAPL remediation technologies and conducted a comprehensive evaluation of these technologies.
The three technologies demonstrated were Six Phase Soil Heating, Steam Enhanced Recovery, and In Situ Chemical Oxidation. The demonstration site was located at Launch Complex 34
(LC34) at Cape Canaveral, Florida. LC34 is the site of the tragic Apollo 1 fire which occurred in 1967. Its use as a launch facility and rocket motor cleaning site resulted in subsurface DNAPL
contamination involving chlorinated cleaning agents. Col. John Koutsandreas of the IICER, Mr. Skip Chamberlain of the DOE and Dr. Tom Early of Oak Ridge National Laboratory also provided
technical support and supervision, and assisted in the management of this technology demonstration project.
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