Chlorinated solvents as well as other widely used dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs)
pose serious long-term groundwater contamination problems in the United States and in other
industrialized countries.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA),
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department
of Defense (DOD), and the U.S. Air Force have formed the Interagency DNAPL Consortium (IDC) in order
to conduct comparative demonstrations of DNAPL remediation technologies Since its inception,
the IICER has served to provide technical support to the IDC and field engineering management to the technology
demonstrations conducted at Launch Complex 34.
In the photo (right) is Laymon Gray, an environmental engineer with the IICER and the IDC Field
Project Manager. Mr. Gray is shown assisting with the installation of multi-level samplers for
radon tracer tests using a Cone Penetrometer. The IDC has selected three promising DNAPL
remediation technologies for a comprehensive evaluation at Launch Complex 34 (LC34) at Cape
Canaveral, Florida. LC34 is the site of the tragic Apollo 1 fire which occurred in 1967. Its
use as a launch facility and rocket motor cleaning site resulted in subsurface DNAPL contamination
involving chlorinated cleaning agents. Col. John Koutsandreas of the IICER, Mr. Skip Chamberlain of
the DOE and Dr. Tom Early of Oak Ridge National Laboratory provide technical support and supervision,
and assist in the management of this technology demonstration project.
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