WM'13 Conference, February 24 – February 28, 2

WM'13 Conference, February 24 – February 28, 2013, Phoenix, AZ

Strategies for Treating and Dewatering Contaminated Soils and Sediments

Simultaneously - 13389

Jody Bickford and Martin Foote, Ph.D.

MSE Technology Applications, Inc.

200 Technology Way, Butte, MT 59701

jody.bickford@mse-ta.com

ABSTRACT

MSE Technology Applications, Inc. (MSE) was asked to perform a series of treatability studies by Global

Technologies, Inc. (Global) and M2

Polymer Technologies, Inc. (M2

Polymer) using Global’s metal

treatment agent, Molecular Bonding System (MBS) and M

2

Polymer’s superabsorbent polymer, Waste Lock 770 (WL-770). The primary objective of the study was to determine if the two products could be used as a one-step treatment process to reduce the leachability of metals and dewater soils and/or sediments simultaneously. Three phases of work were performed during the treatability study. The first phase consisted of generating four bench-scale samples: two treated using only MBS and two treated using only WL-770, each at variable concentrations. The second phase consisted of generating nine bench-scale samples that were treated using MBS and WL-770 in combination with three different addition techniques. The third phase consisted of generating four intermediate-scale samples that were treated using MBS and WL-770 simultaneously. The soils used in the treatability study were collected at the Mike Mansfield Advanced Technology Center in Butte, Montana. The collected soils were screened at 4 mesh (4.75 millimeters (mm)) to remove the coarse fraction of the soil and spiked with metallic contaminants of lead, cadmium, nickel, mercury, uranium, chromium, and zinc.

INTRODUCTION

MSE conducted the treatability testing on a contaminated (spiked) soil sample using the metal treatment agent MBS and the superabsorbent polymer WL-770, both separately and in combination to treat and dewater soil samples simultaneously.

MBS has been tested by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation (SITE) demonstration at the Midvale Slag Superfund Site in Midvale, Utah (Ref. 1). Some 500 tons of three waste streams contaminated with arsenic, cadmium, and lead were treated with MBS. The treated soils passed the EPA’s Multiple Extraction Procedure (MEP) test (Ref. 2). The MEP was designed to simulate initial and subsequent leaching of a waste placed into an improperly designed landfill, where the waste would be exposed to prolonged exposure of acidic precipitation. In addition to the SITE demonstration, MBS has undergone extensive bench and pilot-scale testing and has been used in several full-scale remediation projects. In each of these projects, MBS treatment has been able to reduce the leachability of hazardous contaminants from sediments and soils to levels below the regulatory limits for the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching procedure (TCLP) (Ref. 3). The TCLP was developed to simulate the mobility of contaminants from solids and multiphase wastes placed into a landfill. MBS was previously used at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) for treatment of Brookhaven soils spiked with cadmium and lead (Ref. 4). The analyses of TCLP leachates from the treated soils were well below both the TCLP standards and the Universal Treatment Standards...

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