Location of Volatile Buried Wastes by Field Portable Instrumentation,
Abstract
Contamination of environmental media by volatile organic chemicals has been observed at a wide variety of industrial and government facilities. In particular, volatile halogenated hydrocarbons (VHH) have been shown to pose problems of such magnitude that special regulatory standards are being considered for these materials. Difficulties are encountered when characterizing a site that involves VHH contamination. Some of the factors which increase the difficulties are: There are no standard methods for sampling and analysis for volatile constituents in soil matrices. There is good evidence that several of the species may be transformed biologically. There is evidence to suggest that the volatile halogenated species may undergo nonlinear absorption in soil matrices. These factors limit the ability to determine source location and strength in the case of buried, non-containerized wastes. Adequate sampling of the subsurface waste deposits is both time-consuming and of questionable validity, and the degradation/retardation complications reduce the appropriateness of plume-tracking as a means for determining source characteristics. This paper describes an approach to the sampling and analysis problem which was employed in a recent site characterization effort.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 22, 1984
- Accession Number
- ADP004147
Entities
People
- G. L. Mckown