The 317 and 319 Areas are located on the extreme southern end of the ANL-E site, immediately adjacent to the DuPage County Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve. The 317 Area is an active hazardous and radioactive waste processing and storage area. In the late 1950s, liquid waste was placed in the unit known as the French Drain. Since that time, this waste has migrated into underlying soil and groundwater. The principal environmental concern in the 317 Area is the presence of several VOCs in the soil and groundwater and low levels of tritium in the groundwater beneath and down gradient of the site. The 319 Area Landfill and French Drain are located immediately adjacent to the 317 Area. The principal environmental concern in the 319 Area is the presence of radioactive materials in the waste mound, in the leachate in the mound, and in the shallow groundwater immediately down gradient of the landfill. Several interim actions have already been implemented in this area, to reduce the VOC and tritium releases from these areas, as the result of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Facility Investigation (RFI) conducted from December 1994 through September 1996

Hinchman, R. R.

Negri, M. C.

Quinn, J.

Wozniak, J.

UNT Digital Library

. .,Avqksjy-W(!941fArgonne National Laboratory9700 S. Cass AvenueArgonne, Illinois 60439DEPLOYMENT OF PHYTOREMEDIATION AT THE 317/319 AREA ATARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY - EASTbyM.C. Negri’, R.R. Hinchman’, J. Quinn’, and J.B. Wozniak3‘Energy Systems (ES)‘Environmental Assessment (EA)‘Environment, Safety and Health (ESH)~>~ VAfor@% @“@~~Workshop on Phytoremediation of Inorganic Contaminants&~@#s@Argonne National Laboratory—November 30- December 2,1999Sponsored by:U.S. Department of Energy – EM-50SCFA – Metals and Radionuclides Product LineJanuary 2000The submitted manuscript has been created bythe University of Chicago as Operator ofArgonne Nationaf Laboratory (“Argonne”) underContract No. W-31-109-Eng-38 with the U.S.Department of Energy. The U.S. Governmentretains for itself, and others acting on behalf, apaid-up, nonexclusive, irrevocable worldwidelicense and said article to reproduce, preparederivative works, distribute copies to the public,and perform publicly and display publicly, by oron behalf of the Government.— .-. -—.— - -r--~& ,,,, —., ,. ~..DISCLAIMERThis report was prepared as an account of work sponsoredby an agency of the United States Government. Neitherthe United States Government nor any agency thereof, norany of their employees, make any warranty, express orimplied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility forthe accuracy, ‘ completeness, or usefulness of anyinformation, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, orrepresents that its use would not infringe privately ownedrights. Reference herein to any specific commercialproduct, process, or service by trade name, trademark,manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constituteor imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring bythe United States Government or any agency thereof. Theviews and opinions of authors expressed herein do notnecessarily state or reflect those” of the United StatesGovernment or any agency thereof.DISCLAIMERPortions of this document may be illegiblein electronic image products. Images areproduced from the best available originaldocument.Deployment of Phytoremediation at the 317/319 Area atArgonne National Laboratory-EastIntroduction and BackmoundThe 317 and 319 Areas are located on the extreme southern end of the ANL-E site,immediately adjacent to the DuPage County Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve. The 317 Area is anactive hazardous and radioactive waste processing and storage area. In the late 1950s, liquidwaste was placed in the unit known as the French Drain. Since that time, this waste has migratedinto underlying soil and groundwater. The principal environmental concern in the 317 Area isthe presence of several VOCS in the soil and groundwater and low levels of tritium in thegroundwater beneath and down gradient of the site. The 319 Area Landfill and French Drain arelocated immediately adjacent to the 317 Area. The principal environmental concern in the319 Area is the presence of radioactive materials in the waste mound, in the Ieachate in themound, and in the shallow groundwater immediately down gradient of the landfill. Severalinterim actions have already been implemented in this area, to reduce the VOC and tritiumreleases from these areas, as the result of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA)Facility Investigation (RFI) conducted from December 1994 through September 1996.The final action to complete corrective action for removing contamination in the317 and319 Areas is the deployment of phytoremediation. For this application, phytoremediation isdefined as the engineered use of natural processes by which woody and herbaceous plants extractpore water and entrained chemical substances from subsurface soils, degrade, sequester, andtranspire them along with water vapor into the atmosphere. In 1999, EM-40 and EM-50, throughthe Accelerated Site Technology Deployment (ASTD) Program, jointly funded the deploymentof a phytoremediation system in the 317/319 Area with the following objectives: (1) minimizewater infiltration into the 317 Area French Drain soils, some of which were treated previously bysoil mixing and iron addition; (2) stabilize the treated soil surface in the 317 Area French Drainarea to prevent erosion, runoff, and downstream sedimentation; (3) hydraulically containgroundwater migration and continue remediation of the residual VOCS within the 317 AreaFrench Drain and down gradient of the French Drain; and (4) hydraulically contain the VOCS“ and tritium and VOC plume south of the 319 Area Landfill.The installed system consists of plantings of shallow-rooted hybrid willows and specialdeep-rooted hybrid poplars. This system will prevent the further generation of contaminatedgroundwater in the source area by degrading the contaminants, and will also prevent the furthermigration of these plumes by removing groundwater from shallow saturated zones down gradientfrom the source area.Soon after DOE funded the project, the U.S. EPA and. DOE agreed to include thisremediation technology deployment in the projects evaluated by the U.S. EPA SuperfundInnovative Technology Evaluation (SITE) Program. Under this program, the U.S. EPA willindependently monitor and evaluate the technology’s performance at the ANL-E 317/319 site inaddition to the scheduled monitoring activities conducted by ANL-E.3Technological Armroach and Expected ResultsThe use of trees to remediate contaminated groundwater has been successfullydemonstmted in treating contaminated groundwater. Applied Natural Sciences, Inc, (ANS)demonstrated the use of phreatophytic trees (i.e., plants such as poplars and willows that do notrely on precipitation water but seek water deep in soils) with its TreeMediation@ and TreeWel~systems, that use a unique and patented process to enhance the aggressive rooting ability ofselected trees to clean up soil and groundwater up to 50 ft deep. Under a CRADA, ANL-E andANS researched phytoremediation applications since 1994.The hydrogeology at the 317/319 Site is a complex framework of glacial tills interlacedwith sands, gravels, and silts of varying character, thickness, and lateral extent. The subsurfaceis a complex arrangement of approximately 60 ft of glacial geologic deposits over Siluriandolomite bedrock. The glacial sequence is comprised of Lemont drift overlain by theWadsworth Formation. Both units are dominated by fine-grained, low-permeability till.Permeable zones of varying character and thickness are present in each. These materials rangefrom silty sands to sandy, clayey gravels to gravelly sands. In some locations, pure silt wasencountered. If deep enough, this silt was saturated, and it is assumed to play in important rolein the flow of groundwater in the study area. The permeable zones have a wide range in shape,including thin, Ienticular, alluvial deposits; thick plugs of possible slump or channel-fill material;interfhgerings; and a thick, basal, preglacial sand and gravel. Their thicknesses range from lessthan 1 ft to roughly 15 ft and they have limited lateral extent.On the basis of a preliminary agronomic assessment, hybrid willow and hybrid poplartrees were selected for the system. In the summer of 1999, a total of approximately 800 treeswere planted in three locations: the 317 Area French Drain, south of the 317 Area French Drainand 319 Area Landfill (the 317 and 319 Hydraulic Control Areas), and in the waste trench southof the 319 Area Landfill. Figure 1 shows the location of the plantings.In the 317 and 319 Hydraulic Control Areas, poplar trees were planted in boreholesspaced 16 ft apart drilled down to the contaminated aquifer using ANS’s TreeWell@ system.This technology was selected, in consideration of the hydrogeological setting of the site, to targetroot growth in the contaminated glacial-drift permeable unit approximately 30-ft deep. Thepoplars were planted in 2-ft diameter caisson boreholes lined with plastic sleeves in order todirect the roots exclusively to the main contaminated aquifer. These boreholes were filled with amixture of topsoil, sand, peat, and manure to promote root growth and tree development. Thecapillarity of the mixture provides an added benefit of drawing water to where it is available tothe young trees. Figure 2 presents a diagram of a TreeWell@ installation, and Figure 3 showsthe borehole being drilled in the 317 Hydraulic Control Area.Willow trees were planted in the two other areas in boreholes spaced 10 ft apart at thesurface in areas of relatively shallow groundwater contamination, without the plastic liner inorder to address the contamination and moisture in the whole soil profile. All boreholes werealso provided with aeration tubes to ensure a supply of air to the growing roots.To support the deployment of the phytoremediation system, a groundwater flow modelwas developed. Flow modeling was conducted initially to model the natural, transient changes inthe flow field caused by seasonal changes in recharge to the aquifer. The model was calibrated.4to approximately 10 years of water level measurements from site monitoring wells. Anticipatedeffects of the phytoremediation system were included. The model, updated to include theas-built configuration of the phytoremediation system, indicates that the as-built plantation will “provide hydraulic containment even during the winter months when the trees are dormant.Planting phreatophytic trees at the capillary fringe in the year 1999 is expected to providefull hydraulic control by the year 2002-2003 and be self sustaining for the full expected life ofthe engineered plantation. Hybrid poplar and hybrid willow trees typically have a life span ofabout 40 years. The Path to Closure Plan committed ANL-E to have all remedial work at the317/3 19 area completed by October 2000.ANL-E proposed to establish a groundwater management zone (GMZ) that incorporatesthe 317/3 19 Area. Once the Illinois EPA (IEPA) approves the GMZ, periodic sampling of thewells that bound the zone is expected to show that the groundwater outside the zone meets theTiered Approach to Corrective Action Objectives (TACO) Tier 1 cleanup objectives set by theIllinois Administrative Code. ANL-E will continue its corrective actions inside the GMZ untilsuch time that the IEPA determines that the actions can be discontinued.ANL-E installed 48 groundwater monitoring wells on the phytoremediation project site totrack the performance of the phytoremediation system. Monitoring activities have started at thecompletion of the construction phase and include recording climatic conditions, plant growth andtranspiration rates, soil moisture, VOCS degradation in plant tissue, groundwater elevation andconcentration of VOCS and tritium, ambient air concentration of VOCS and tritium, andtranspirate concentration of VOCs. Root development will be observed through specially -designed viewing ports (minirhizotrons). This monitoring program is a combined andindependent effort between ANL-E (funded by the ASTD program and EM-40) and the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency through the Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation(SITE) program.At the end of the remedial process, when a final analysis will verify the absence of thecontaminants in the biomass, the trees will be cut down at ground level, chipped, and air dried.The roots will be left in place to decay through natural processes and the chips will be reused onsite as mulch for the planting of native prairie species, in accordance with the planned finalrestoration of the area.TechnoloEv AdvantagesThe conventional, baseline method of remediation of the target 317 and 319 areasincluded placing a cap and installing extraction wells (pump-and-treat) down gradient of thecontaminant plumes from which contaminated water would be withdrawn and discharged to alift station, which pumps water to Argonne’s waste treatment plant. The subsurface at the sitemay be comprised of units of widely varying lateral or vertical extent, with gradational or sharptransitions in permeability. The fibrous nature of roots allows the trees to penetrate andremediate both the relatively fast-flowing pore spaces and the less permeable zones.Fundamentally, this distinguishes phytoremediationmainly from the most permeable aquifer media.from extraction wells, which remove water.5The plant basedpreliminary evaluationssystem is expected to have lower operating and maintenance costs:put the cost savings over the lifetime of the deployment at 50%compared to the baseline approach. A significant cost saving is the avoidance of secondarywaste (pumped groundwater) and related treatment.Additional advantages of the phytoremediation system are (1) the ability of trees to alsoactively promote and assist in the degradation of the contaminants at the source area, which thebaseline asphalt cap would not do, and (2) the optimal fit of the vegetation with the plannedfuture land use of the contaminated site and adjacent areas, as the phytoremediation plantationwill contribute to increase soil fertility to host subsequent prairie species.Contacts: M. Cristina NegriEnvironmental Engineer/Soil ScientistEnergy Systems DivisionArgonne National Laboratory9700 S. Cass AvenueArgonne IL 60439Tel: 630-252-9662Fax: 630-252-9281nemi @anl.~ovJames B. WozniakProject ManagerEnvironmental Health and Safety DivisionArgonne National Laboratory9700 S. Cass AvenueArgonne IL 60439Tel: 630-252-6306Fax: 630-252-9642j wozniak@ anl.~ovWeb address:www.iPd.anl.~ov/biotech/Phvto.html“6Figure 1 – Aerial picture of the 3 17/319 area phytoremediation project and location of plantings:317 French drain area---- 317/3 19 Hydraulic control area............. 319 Waste trench area*.. 7,.. . 1.,, .,..,. >,{ ‘“. ‘.,’,,/;.. :. ..,7 ,.; --’ +.’... 3,“.’?, .,,. .>,:,. :.’ “ -’-.:.,.,:,;; ,, ,’:,-.,, * ‘.,., .,~,,, -’. . .,’,.:<-.. ...’,} -,, ,, >’..,,,.-,, i ., ‘ ;.”; ,,.. . ,,..‘,,\ ,, . ‘, ;,.t“.,,..‘:;> “.. ,,,., . .. ‘., ;:>:<.: , , : ‘$.,, .;”. ,’,., ‘ ::,;,:;-’, : ..; :’.. ;:., .. .... , , , ,,,,,c, . .A ‘.; .,/ ., ‘w>. ....’ -,. . .. . . . . “,. . .’ ..,. ‘,,Apolkd rJalufaI $ciences,”k. M.’ Ga~@,PM.,prQ’$kJIOIi~ll61999,Figure 2 Schematic of a TreeWell@ installation...:.,,.*,. 8Figure 3 A borehole being drilled in the 317 Hydraulic Control Area.

Deployment of phytoremediation at the 317/319 area at Argonne National Laboratory - East

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Deployment of phytoremediation at the 317/319 area at Argonne National Laboratory - East

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