Oser Avenue Hauppauge, NY Sonic Drilling and Injection

LaBella was awarded a large remedial construction project by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) under the State Superfund program. At the Oser Avenue site, a chlorinated solvent spill at a former manufacturing facility resulted in contamination in groundwater. The contaminant plume had migrated off site towards a residential neighborhood. LaBella was contracted by the NYSDEC to implement remedial measures to treat the contaminant plume before it could reach the residential area. The Oser Avenue site is listed as a Class 2 site in the state registry of inactive hazardous waste disposal sites. A Class 2 site represents a significant threat to public health and/or the environment and requires remedial action.

The project included the installation of 104 injection wells ranging in depth between 50 and 160 feet below grade. In addition, eight soil vapor extraction (SVE) wells and six groundwater monitoring wells were installed. In order to meet the goals of the project, an SDC-390 rotosonic drill was utilized. The sonic drill has the capacity to advance over 160 feet of 8-inch casing in a day, allowing for rapid injection well installation on this time-sensitive project.

A custom injection trailer was designed and built for the project and consisted of multiple injection legs and highly accurate flow meters. The system was built with the project in mind and provided complete secondary containment and a discrete package that kept the inner workings from disturbing the surrounding homes and businesses. The trailer was also designed to provide tunable flow through the use of variable frequency drives and recirculation valves. With this custom-built system, a total of 100,000 gallons of 20% sodium permanganate solution was injected into the subsurface to treat the contaminant plume.

The injection process required the sodium permanganate to be introduced to the soil and groundwater impacted with chlorinated solvent through the injection wells to target specific locations and depth intervals. Sodium permanganate is used to induce a strong chemical oxidation process that destroys the chemical contaminants in place (i.e., in-situ) and reduces them to acceptable levels. This process is known as in-situ chemical oxidation (ISCO).

Multiple injection and monitoring events were conducted between 2013 and 2015. During that time, the concentrations of chlorinated solvents in the soil and groundwater were successfully reduced to acceptable levels. The site is currently in the process of being delisted.

In addition to the primary project goal of contaminant mitigation, LaBella successfully orchestrated drilling and injection operations inside the neighborhood with minimal disturbance to the general public. Careful precautions were taken to maintain local traffic flow, as well as keeping the surrounding public safe during all phases of the project.