Vinyl Chloride Bioremediation in Central Ohio

Aerobic Cometabolism of  Vinyl Chloride

CL-Out® bioremediation removed vinyl chloride and other chlorinated  solvents found in ground water at a former automobile repair shop near Columbus, Ohio.  The solvents were thought to have been released from an underground storage tank (UST).    After the UST and associated contaminated soil were removed, CL-Out bioremediation was implemented to reduce the levels of contamination to site-specific cleanup goals.

Geology

The site is set in the area of central Ohio where the ground moraine is relatively thin.  The underlying bedrock is limestone with a very  heavily fractured surface.   While the till of the ground moraine is relatively impermeable the bottom of the UST cavity was very close to the bedrock surface where most ground waterflow occurred.

Hydrogeology

The affected ground water was in the weathered surface of the bedrock, which is a relatively prolific formation.    The depth to the top of water was approximately 9 feet and the monitoring wells were screened to a total depth of 15 feet.

Contamination

The size of ground water plume that resulted from leaching soil contaminants was estimated to be 4,000 square feet.  The original contaminant was suspected to be PCE, but the main contaminants at the time of the remediation were cis 1,2 DCE and vinyl chloride.  There may have been naturally occurring organisms that degraded the PCE to DCE and vinyl chloride.  CL-Out bioaugmentation was implemented to accelerate the natural process to achieve timely site closure.

Remediation Design

CL-Out bioremediation was implemented through temporary injection wells in the source area.  Two applications of CL-Out were made between February and August 2008.    Monitoring wells were sampled in the treatment area to assess the progress of the remediation.  The following table shows the contaminant concentration treads in the monitoring well with the highest pre-treatment contaminant concentrations.

	Contaminant Concentrations (µg/L)
	PCE	TCE	DCE	Vinyl Chloride
Pre-Treatment  11/13/07	BDL	BDL	10.0	80.0
First Injection 2/29/08 – 1 Drum of CL-Out
Post-Treatment 6/16/08	BDL	BDL	7.7	27.0
Second Injection 8/12/08 – 2 Drums of CL-Out
Post-Treatment 9/4/08	BDL	BDL	1.6	4.6
Post-Treatment 12/9/08	BDL	BDL	1.3	BDL

Maintaining Aerobic Conditions

CL-Out bioremediation is aerobic cometabolism that uses dextrose as the growth substrate.  Oxygen is required for the metabolism of the dextrose and to supply oxygen for the oxygenase enzyme that is responsible for the destruction of the DCE and vinyl chloride molecules.  During the project dissolved oxygen levels (DO) and redox conditions (ORP) were monitored.   Prior to CL-Out remediation the DO average was 1.4 mg/L and the ORP was -62.  With clearly anoxic site conditions, CL-Out bioremediation was selected, but the redox conditions were monitored to be sure the conditions did not fall out of the effective range for CL-Out bioremediation.

As the remediation progressed, the DO and ORP decreased to 0.42 and -225 respectively.  During the August 12, 2008 CL-Out application, ORP socks were installed in two monitoring wells to maintain aerobic conditions for the remainder of the project.

Microbial Population

CL-Out consists of naturally-occurring Pseudomonas sp. organisms.  The background population of Pseudomonas sp.  was tested prior to CL-Out bioaugmentation.  The background population was 19,000 cfu/ml.  The target population for effective remediation is 1,000,000 cfu/ml.  Thirty days after CL-Out bioaugmentation the population of Pseudomonas sp.  was 840,000 cfu/ml in a down gradient monitoring well.

 Results

After two small treatments, the contaminant concentrations in the source area were reduced to acceptable levels.  There was no rebound in the four months of post treatment monitoring.