The streamlined regulatory approval process put into action by the Rapid Commercialization Initiative has come full circle for the innovative environmental technology LASAGNA^TM. Although the process wasn't rapid, it has resulted in a verification statement that, with the participants' signatures, attests to LASAGNA^TM's performance in reducing trichloroethylene (TCE) in the subsurface during an RCI-supported demonstration at the U.S. Department of Energy's Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky.

The verification statement is a concrete example of how a group of state regulators and federal agency and industry representatives can work together to break down barriers that prevent new technologies from being used. RCI verification statements certify a technology's cost and performance under specified conditions and can be used by technology licensees to facilitate regulatory approval in states where the technology is proposed for use. The ultimate goal of RCI is to avoid the slow state-by-state approval process that can derail a technology's deployment.

LASAGNA^TM was developed by a private research consortium (Monsanto, DuPont, and General Electric) with funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. DOE's Office of Science and Technology helped fund the demonstration of LASAGNA^TM at Paducah. LASAGNA^TM, designed for low-permeability soils, uses electro-osmosis to move contaminated water (the RCI verification applies only to TCE contamination) through specially designed treatment zones that degrade the waste in situ. For the RCI demonstration, the treatment cell consisted of layers of iron filings and kaolin clay, which degraded TCE to acetylene, ethane, and ethylene products. The demonstration proved that the method could work to depths of 45 feet, removing TCE from 95 to 99 percent from the test site. (For more information about how the technology works, see the February 1995 issue of Initiatives).

The RCI process for LASAGNA^TM started in August 1996 when a three-month demonstration of the technology began at Paducah's Cylinder Drop Test Site. RCI/LASAGNA^TM participants included representatives from the U.S. departments of Commerce, Defense, and Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Participating states and state organizations included the California Environmental Protection Agency, Southern States Energy Board, and the Western Governors Association. Regulators from Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Ohio, South Carolina, and Tennessee also signaled their concurrence with the verification statement by either signing it or attaching concurrence letters.

One of the benefits of the RCI process is that participants become familiar with how a technology works through their exposure to plans, data, and reports. The process encourages the building of a body of knowledge about environmental technologies among groups of regulators and technology holders and users.

The RCI verification statement for LASAGNA^TM is a PDF file attached to a page from the Remediation Technologies Development Forum's Internet site at http://www.rtdf.org/ lastechp.htm. The RCI final report on LASAGNA^TM is also available from the same site, as are topical reports covering tasks completed during Phase I and IIa.

Monsanto is in the process of licensing the technology. For more information, call Mason Hughes, LASAGNA^TM project manager at Monsanto Co., (314) 694-1466.