Soil Contamination and Remediation

Presented by: Jonnie Dunne, Seth Kammer, Sarah Schanz and Kathleen Walter

SEFS 507; Autumn Quarter 2014

Outline Industrial soil contamination and soil properties

Industrial to recreational land use transition

History of Burke-Gilman Trail & Gas Works Park

Soil cleaning and remediation techniques

Bio/phytoremediation

“Toporemediation”

Air sparging

Gas Works Park site characteristics

Industrial Soil Contamination

Xenobiotic chemicals: solvents, pesticides, heavy

metals, hydrocarbons

Health impacts from direct exposure of gases, solids,

indirectly through water pollution: cancer, neurological

damage, kidney, skeletal, muscular diseases

Soil composition, contaminant type, pH and

microorganisms affect chemical interactions, soil

behavior

Industrialization

Allowed human society to alter landscapes on continental scale

Began process of economic and social transformations that continue to impact society today

Deindustrialization

“The process of social and economic change which is due

to the reduction in industrial capacity or the activities of a

country’s manufacturing and heavy industry”

-The Business Dictionary

Graph from wikipedia commons

Deindustrialization Industrial factories (coal, iron, paper, etc) leave wake

of heavily contaminated soil

What can be done with the land?

What problems arise from the use of land previously

exposed to the pollutants that arise during the

industrial process of coal making, iron works and paper

milling?

Landschatspark, Germany

© Jürgen Dreide

Built in 1901 by August Thyssen

Produced iron until 1985

Political dispute with ownership

of land

Soils containing arsenic and

cyanide were completely

removed

Other toxic soils were buried in

sintering pools with new soil on

top

Landschatspark, Germany

Landscape park

Former ironworks factory

Buildings put to use as event center, diving center, climbing area,

high ropes course and a viewing tower (blast furnace)

Photo credit: http://lambscape-natarsha.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Pa16O1scxqw/TvJZomK9AKI/AAAAAAAAB48/M5_ZUesSt4Q/s1600/Landschaftspark-Duisburg%20(37).jpg

http://www.germany.travel/de/staedte-kultur/schloesser-parks-gaerten/galerie-landschaftspark-duisburg-nord.html#

Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam

Gasworks park-closed in

1967

50 acre site remained

unused until transfer of

ownership in 1992

1997 design by American

Kathryn Gustafson Photo Credit: Presentation by Evert Verhagen , Consultant, inspirator at Creative Cities

Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam

Clean-up extensive and

time-consuming

Tar, cyanide, asbestos

throughout soil

Complete soil cleanup cost

was prohibitive

Sludge extracted under tent

to contain contaminants Photo credit: www.westergasfabriek.nl

Photo Credit: Presentation by Evert Verhagen , Consultant, inspirator at Creative Cities

Photo Credit: Presentation by Evert Verhagen , Consultant, inspirator at Creative Cities

The High Line, New York City

Photo credit: placesjournal.org Photo Credit: www.archdaily.com

Pritchard Park, Bainbridge WA

Perfection Pile Preserving

Co. opened wood treatment

plant in 1904

Creosote used to pressurize

and preserve wood

Ownership changed hands

several times until 1988

when plant closed Photo Credit: prichardpark.org

Pritchard Park, Bainbridge WA

Thermal treatment to heat

creosote used 1999-2004

Site capped

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

(PAH)

Creosote sludge (29,000 tons

removed)

Oil (100,000 gallons removed)

Asbestos (430 sq. yds removed)

Napthalene

Photo Credit: prichardpark.org

Deindustrialization

Parks containing industrial ruins offer cultural narratives about history and our portrayal of history (Chan, 2009)

Symbol of the grip of nature being reestablished after the grip of industry has been relaxed (Great City Parks; Alan Tate)

Photo Credit: Nowtopian

History of the Burke-Gilman trail

1885 Thomas Burke, Daniel Gilman

1890 Northern Pacific Railroad

1970-71 Burlington Northern Railroad

1978 Burke-Gilman Trail, 12.1 mi east from Gas Works Park

Invasive clearing to protect soil, removal of contaminated soil

History of Gas Works Park

1905-1956 Seattle Gas Light Company

1937 switch from coal to oil

1962 City of Seattle

1971 Master Plan “cleaning and greening”

1975 Gas Works Park

1984 Park closed following EPA rec

Bioremediation

Natural Bioremediation Managed Bioremediation

[1 ] [2 ]

How Bioremediation Works

Degradation pollutants made into nontoxic, naturally occurring compounds.

Sequestration pollutants confined or changed so that they are unavailable to biological systems.

Removal pollutants collected from site by bioremediators (altered or unaltered), transpired through leaves or harvested by people for disposal

[3 ]

Bioremediators

Trees, shrubs, grasses Microorganisms

[4 ] [5]

Also, fungi & algae!

Bioremediation Strategies • Natural Attenuation – monitoring of natural degradation processes

• Biostimulation – promoting an abundance of natural occurring bioremediators within the treatment site.

• Bioaugmentation – introducing species/strains (non-native or not common) to a treatment site that are effective bioremediators.

• Ex-situ – removing contaminated soils and treating off-site

• In-situ – treating the contaminated soils on-site

Pollutants Suitable for Bioremediation

Sharma (2012)

Soil Properties & Bioremediation

(Sharma 2012)

Factors of Bioremediation for Microorganisms

[6 ] [7]

Is Bioremediation the Right Choice? Concerns

May be difficult to buffer the hazard area from public

May require extensive monitoring

GMO concerns: Amendments introduced into the environment to enhance bioremediation may cause other contamination problems

Lack of control over remediation site

Requires more time.

May not reduce concentration of contaminants to required levels

Site may not be conducive for bioremediators

New technology – growing area of interest/research

Advantages

Contaminants usually converted to harmless products or kept from moving

Inexpensive relative to conventional technologies

Nonintrusive, potentially allowing for continued site use

Relative ease of implementation

Primary Contaminants at Gas Works Park

PAHs– 100+ chemicals formed

during incomplete burning of coal

Major Contributor: tar refinery

Environmental Fate: persistent within the environment, some vaporize easily, others do no break down within water and settle on the ground of lakes and rivers

Health Risks: toxic and (possible) carcinogenic

Benzene

Major Contributor: oil & coal processing

Environmental Fate: highly mobile, rapid volatilization, may leach into ground water where it would degrade more slowly.

Health Risks: toxic and carcinogenic [8 ]

Clear & Excavate or Bioremediate?

[8 ]

Support for Bioremediation

Conventional methods of excavating soils can produce quicker results

but they are expensive.

[9 ] [10 ]

Support for Bioremediation

“Hey, tomatoes can grow here - it can’t be bad!”

“Tomato plants grow

densely at the Gas

Works Park. Grass,

seeded in the sludge, is

beginning to grow in the

shade of the tomatoes….

They found the chemical

content to be about the

same as that of grocery

tomatoes and

pronounced them good

to eat. Those who ate

them - and many did-

agreed.” –Seattle Times

August 29, 1974

[11 ]

Bioremediation Efforts at Gas Works

Biostimulation: bio-solids and sawdust Phytostabilization: clay layer

and grass cover

[8 ] [8 ]

Was Bioremediation Effective?

Depends on your measure…

Currently monitoring natural attenuation

Continued maintenance of vegetation layer required

Sediment and pollutant pathways have led to contamination into Lake Union

Bioremediation trend setter

[12 ]

Current and Future Bioremediation Efforts

Continued monitoring of natural attenuation

Maintain vegetation cover

Opportunities for Phytoremediation

[13 ]

Topography as a remediation tool

Richard Haag:

Honor Seattle’s hills

Use surface runoff to clean contaminants

Topo-remediation

1. Rainfall runs off the hills

2. Gathers in swales

3. Drains the bio-zone of contaminants

4. “Dilution is the solution” – drain to Lake Union

Result: Hills and swales and Kite Hill built into Gas Works design Was this effective?

Where did the topography come from?

Moved around pre-existing material

Added compost

Kite Hill:

Un-recyclable construction

material & contaminated

soils

Fill from the UW Tower

construction

Contaminated soils

from

elsewhere on site

Result: Outside and possibly contaminated material at surface and underlying

Kite Hill.

What might this mean for clean up efforts?

The resulting stratigraphy

Our typical Seattle units capped with fills….

How is water movement through these units going to be affected?

Groundwater flow

Little to no recharge from Wallingford area, all rainfall

90% of rainfall recharge in Gas Works goes to Lake Union

Flows radially out towards Lake Union

Fluctuating lake levels can drive groundwater flow back into park though

Groundwater flow

Pre-Fraser till creates impermeable unit

If groundwater flow is outward, are any remediation efforts addressing groundwater contamination to Lake Union?

Changes since 1970

We can’t leave contaminated soils at the top…

2000: soil cover (18” of topsoil) in central area

2005: soil cover in NW area

2 cap attempts

2009: NE corner capped

Tar seeps on east side of

cracking towers occasionally

Is a 18” soil cover enough? What are the hydraulic conductivity

properties of the topsoil?

Air sparging

One of the 2000 remediation efforts

Ran for 6 years

Air is pumped into the saturated zone

Contaminants enter vapor stage

Extracted to surface

Contaminants treated or burned off

Air sparging

Located in the SW corner

Ran until 2006 when parts broke

Targeted benzene pool

Sparging & burnoff unit Sparged

area

Sources • Association of Bainbridge Communities: History of the Land at Pritchard Park. http://www.pritchardpark.org/History.html. Accessed Nov, 2014.

• Crawford, D. “Bioremediation” Plant Sciences. Ed. Richard Robinson. Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2001. p84-86.

• DNAinfo: Developer Digs up Thousands of Pounds of Contaminated Soils Near Highline. http://www.dnainfo.com/new-

york/20131112/chelsea/developer-digs-up-thousands-of-pounds-of-contaminated-soil-near-high-line. Accessed Nov, 2014

• Elisabeth Clemence Chan (2009) What roles for ruins? Meaning and narrative of industrial ruins in contemporary parks, Journal of Landscape

Architecture, 4:2, 20-31, DOI: 10.1080/18626033.2009.9723419

• Erickson, L.; Davis, L. “Bioremediation” Pollution A to Z. Ed. Richard M. Stapleton. Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. p53-56.

• Hyder, J. “Bioremediation” Biotechnology: In Context. Ed. Brenda Wilmoth Lerner and K. Lee Lerner. Vol. 1. In Context Series Detroit: Gale,

2012. p156-158.

• Landscaftspark Dusiburg-Nord: The Park. http://en.landschaftspark.de/the-park. Accessed Nov, 2014.

• NYC Parks: The New York Highline. http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/the-high-line. Accessed Nov, 2014.

• Project Westergasfabriek: History. http://www.project-westergasfabriek.nl/English. Accessed Nov, 2014.

• Sharma, S. “Bioremediation: Features, Strategies and applications” Asian Journal of Pharmacy and Life Science. Vol. 2 (2), April-June,2012

• Tate, Alan. Great city parks. Taylor & Francis, 2013.

• Way, Thaisa. “Landscapes of industrial excess: a thick sections approach to Gas Works Park. Journal of Landscape Architecture, Spring 2013.

Sources • Vanderleeli: Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam: from Industrial Site to Cultural Center.

http://vanderleelie.hubpages.com/hub/westergasfabriek. Accessed Nov, 2014.