Project: TCH Treatment of Creosote and SVOCs to 350°C at Former Wood Treatment Facility
Location
Alhambra, CA
Contaminants
Petrachlorophenol, PAHs, creosote, (wood) and dioxins
Volume
16,200 cy
Goal
Achieve mass removal and < 0.065 TDEQ
Number of Heaters
785 (two phases)
Mass Removed
870,000 lbs.
Technologies
Important Project Details
Approach: TerraTherm installed 785 thermal wells, including 654 heater-only and 131 heater-vacuum wells at 7 ft spacing at the site. The target temperature to achieve destruction and removal of all COCs including dioxins was 335°C.
Challenges: An extensive community involvement program was undertaken
by Southern California Edison and TerraTherm, and in response to community concerns and additional contingencies were included in the system design, including redundant air treatment equipment, process blowers, stack testing events and longer operator hours.
Results: Over the course of the project, TerraTherm reduced mean B(a)P-E and TDEQ concentrations in soil from 30.6 mg/kg and 0.018 mg/kg (pre-treatment) to 0.059 mg/kg and 0.00011 mg/kg (posttreatment), respectively; thereby meeting the remedial goals, and resulting in a No Further Action letter from the Department of Toxic Substances Control.
What Makes this Project Unique
This is the largest high temperature ISTR project ever undertaken at a wood treatment site. The only alternative deemed capable of achieving the unrestricted land use goal was soil excavation followed by off-site incineration. The thermal solution was approximately 40% lower cost than the excavation/incineration alternative for this F-listed waste.