Did you ever wonder what became of that bright classmate who showed so much promise in high school? Did she live up to her potential and set the world on fire? Perhaps you've also wondered what becomes of OST-funded technologies after their first flush of success. Do they prove their worth in full-scale demonstrations? Are they eventually permitted and marketed? What commercialization efforts shepherd them through the valley of death? Are they deployed to remediate DOE sites? Are they licensed to private companies?
In "Where are they now?" Initiatives will provide updates on previously covered technologies and issues. The first update is on Expedited Site Characterization, a rational site characterization process that speeds up and improves upon traditional site characterization. ESC was first covered in the May 1994 issue of Initiatives during an interview with Caroline Purdy, program manager for the characterization, monitoring, and sensor technology integrated program, now known as the characterization, monitoring, and sensor technology crosscutting program, or CMST-CP. When the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Site in South Carolina hosted an ESC Visitors' Day, Initiatives was there and published an article that appeared in the October 1995 issue. Read on to find out where ESC is now.
ESC in Poland
In a joint international environmental technology exchange, DOE's Office of Science and Technology demonstrated Expedited Site Characterization in Poland during the spring and early summer. The project is a cooperative venture of DOE; the Institute for the Ecology of Industrial Areas, or IETU, in Katowice, Poland; Czechowice Oil Refinery; Ames Laboratory; Westinghouse Savannah River Company; and Florida State University. The goals of this project are to identify and develop environmental technologies for use in the cleanup of DOE sites and to encourage the use of U.S. environmental technologies and services outside the United States. In addition to ESC, other components in this project include risk assessment and bioremediation.
At the Czechowice Oil Refinery, the site of the project, the catalytic cracking process is used to refine crude oil. Waste from the process is dumped into a series of lagoons. During the site characterization phase from April to early June, the extent of subsurface hydrocarbon contamination was determined. Based on the results of the site characterization and risk assessment phases, an appropriately designed bioremediation process was planned to be implemented beginning in August. During Phase I of the ESC portion of the project, the Ames Laboratory team members, working with their counterparts from IETU, obtained general site information that guided the team in its judicial use of more sensitive and costly sampling techniques in Phase II. For quantitative soil and ground water sampling in Phase II, the team used direct push technologies such as Cone Penetrometer and Geoprobe.
On May 27 in Katowice, Poland, the project participants held a Visitors' Day to explain to the public the integration of site characterization, risk assessment, and remediation phases of this project. During a visit to the Czechowice Oil Refinery site, ESC team members demonstrated the technologies being used in the ESC.
ASTM standard
Back in the states, an American Society for Testing and Materials, or ASTM, task force convened on April 18 in Santa Fe, New Mexico to begin developing a standard for the use of ESC. The task force is charged with developing an ASTM standard guidance document on ESC to be used by contractors and regulators to identify essential characteristics of the ESC methodology. A second meeting on April 29 with knowledgeable ASTM members of the Committee on Soil and Rock resulted in a second version of the document outline. Caroline Purdy, CMST-CP manager, has assigned Tom Starke to visit DOE sites to familiarize them with the standard. State regulators are also involved in developing the standard. Under David Berg from OST, the Global Environmental Technology Enterprise is coordinating ASTM and state reviews.
