Soil Characterization and Reclamation
CSE has been at the forefront of soil reclamation projects by working with developers and contractors to assist with managing earthworks by fully characterizing soils, preparing soil management plans, and submitting LSP Opinions regarding appropriate placement of soils. See the MassDEP list of Facilities Accepting Reclamation Soil.
CSE promotes and applies green approaches during the assessment and remediation of oil and hazardous material disposal sites. CSE considers all environmental effects of remedy implementation and incorporating options to eliminate or reduce the environmental footprint of cleanup activities to the maximum extent possible. During site cleanups, CSE takes consideration of eliminating or reducing, to the extent practicable and consistent with response action requirements and objectives, total energy use, air pollutant emissions, greenhouse gases, water use, materials consumption, and ecosystem and water resources impacts, resulting from the performance of response actions through energy efficiency, renewable energy use, materials management, waste reduction, land management, and ecosystem protection.
Another way CSE focuses on reducing waste is by recycling contaminated soil generated during cleanups. Typical oil spills will generate tons of petroleum contaminated soil, instead of sending this material to a landfill, CSE prepares a MassDEP Bill of Lading (BOL) package including full laboratory analytical data and site characterization information for acceptance at a soil recycling facility such as Aggregate Industries, Ted Ondrick Company, Environmental Soil Management Companies (ESMI) and Clean Earth. These soil recycling facilities utilize various technologies to reduce contaminant impacts and create reusable soil:
- Asphalt Batch/Cold Mix – a process in which petroleum contaminated soils are recycled into viable, safe construction materials. Two methods, encapsulation and bio-remediation, are used to convert these soils into environmentally safe products for use as construction base or as soil cover for landfills. The encapsulation process utilizes commercial emulsions to bind the petroleum materials thereby preventing further migration while bio-remediation uses natural occurring microbes to break down the petroleum into inert soil substances.
- Low Temperature Thermal Desorption (LTTD) or Hot Mix – a technology that utilizes heat to physically separate contaminants from soil and media. LTTD units are designed to heat contaminated soils in the rotary kiln (primary treatment unit) to temperatures sufficient to volatilize the contaminants and desorb (physically separate) from the soil or media. The vaporized hydrocarbons are treated in a secondary treatment unit – afterburner/thermal oxidizer – where the hydrocarbons are destroyed prior to discharge to the atmosphere. Treated soils are rehydrated to control fugitive emissions, stockpiled for analysis, and recycled as alternate daily cover (landfill) or cap/cover material on a Beneficial Use (BU) site.