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Protecting Ground Water Supply is a Top Priority for Ardaman & Associates

By Kathy Hagood
Brevard Technical Journal

When hazardous materials like dry-cleaning fluids contaminate soil or groundwater environmental remediation may be necessary.

Federal and state regulations govern requirements for cleaning up pollution sources, such as gasoline spills, that are known public-health hazards. Clean up can be expensive, but in some cases the government helps foot the bill.

Commercial companies, such as Ardaman and Associates Inc., typically perform testing and remediation on the Space Coast. Ardaman, which is headquartered in Orlando, has one of its 12 branch offices in Cocoa. "We often are called in to perform an assessment when a property that could have an environmental problem is bought or sold," said Dan Zrallack, a project engineer in Ardaman's Cocoa office.

Commercial and government properties where hazardous products such as dangerous solvents have been produced or used are at most risk, but residential properties may also be affected, he said.

"If a commercial site such as an old gasoline station is or once was near the home, there's the potential for a problem," Zrallack said. "It's something to keep in mind if you're considering buying such a property."

Old gas stations typically used tanks and pipes that could rust through. Faulty pipes and overfilled tanks at modern gas stations also can lead to gasoline spills.

In extremely rare cases, previous homeowners may have dumped oil or dangerous solvents into the yard or into the sewage system in such large quantities that the property may need remediation.

While banks typically ask for an environmental assessment if they have any doubts about a commercial property, commercial property buyers who don't go through a lender should protect themselves by requesting an assessment, Zrallack said. The seller may also opt for an assessment when there's not lender as a good will measure and protection from future legal challenges.

"Buyers sometimes come to us when they detect a problem after they purchase a property. It's a big headache for them," he said.

The average price for an initial assessment, based on extensive research on the property's history, is about $1,500. If the initial research uncovers potential pollution sources, ground water and soil samples are taken for evaluation. Such testing can range from about $500 to $10,000.

If pollution is confirmed, further study and remediation is typically necessary. Clean up can range from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Remediation techniques range from the "pump and treat" method, tried and true from the early days of remediation, to more modern methods, which include using pollution-eating bacteria.

Depending on the extent of the pollution and its location, federal or state funding assistance for remediation may be available. For the most hazardous sites in the nation, the Superfund Program, administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), kicks in.

Brevard's only Superfund clean-up project, the Harris Corp. Palm Bay facility site, continues to be monitored by the EPA.

In the early 1980s, groundwater in the area near a Palm Bay drinking water well field was found to be contaminated with volatile organic compounds associated with Harris' manufacturing activities, according to the EPA. Harris, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and EPA worked together on a series of remediation efforts that lowered contamination levels.

Brevard County's natural resources management office serves as a watchdog over remediation of relatively small commercial sites in Brevard and Indian River counties that have been polluted by spills of petroleum products or commercial solvents. There's a backlog of such sites in need of remediation.

Sites near water well fields are the focus of state-assisted funding for clean-up projects, said Douglas Divers, Brevard County environmental section supervisor.

"Protecting our drinking water sources is our priority," he said.

Some of the biggest environmental remediation sites in the county, which are monitored by the state, are at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport.

That's because a dangerous cleaning solvent, trichloroethylene (TCE), was used to clean space flight hardware, primarily in the '60s. Up to about 300 gallons of the metal degreaser was typically used to clean a rocket engine on the pad. Over time, thousands of gallons of the solvent were dumped in sandy soil areas of the spaceport.

"Back then, people didn't know TCE was hazardous. We didn't even have environmental protection agencies," said Mike Deliz, NASA remediation project manager at Kennedy Space Center.

Dumping the TCE product on sandy soil was the recommended disposal method at the time. Later it was discovered that TCE dissolves in water and causes cancer.

The largest concentrated TCE site at KSC is Launch Complex 34 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the site of the Apollo I fire. So much TCE solvent was used at the site that the contamination extends up to about 120 feet down in some areas.

"We thought contamination only went down about 50 feet, but about a year ago we discovered how deep the problem really goes," Deliz said.

While the abandoned launch site poses no environmental or human health risk, it is on the KSC clean-up list because of state regulations. Limited water resources in Florida combined with a growing population motivated the state to require all potential drinking-water-source areas be cleaned up.

TCE is permissible in quantities no greater than three parts per billion. Because of the extent of the TCE problem at LC-34 and the expense of remediation at depths up to 120 feet, it likely will take many decades to bring the site up to state standards.

"It won't be within our lifetime," Deliz said.

A positive outgrowth of the problem is that LC-34 was chosen to serve as a test bed for six different remediation techniques used to combat the product form of TCE.

"The site has offered us the opportunity to scientifically compare various remediation techniques at one location. The data is invaluable," said NASA environmental engineer Dr. Jackie Quinn.

NASA and four other federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, invested about $7 million dollars from 1998 through 2003 to test six technologies at the site, including a KSC-developed zero-valent iron technique. The new technology has been licensed to several remediation companies.

KSC is conducting a follow-on remediation study at the test bed, funded by the Department of Defense, to determine how well a strain of bacteria does at mopping up what diluted TCT remains in one area of the test bed.

"While contamination at the LC-34 area is not a danger to the public or to the environment, it provides us with a place that helps us better understand techniques to use in contaminated areas (across the country and world) that could affect our water supply and human health," Quinn said.