Implementation of deep soil mixing at the Kansas City Plant

In July 1996, the US Department of Energy (DOE) Kansas City Plant (KCP), AlliedSignal Federal Manufacturing and Technologies, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), conducted field-scale tests of in situ soil mixing and treatment technologies within the Northeast Area (NEA) of the KCP at the Former Ponds site. This demonstration, testing, and evaluation effort was conducted as part of the implementation of a deep soil mixing (DSM) innovative remedial technology demonstration project designed to test DSM in the low-permeability clay soils at the KCP. The clay soils and groundwater beneath this area are contaminated by volatile organic compounds (VOCs), primarily trichloroethene (TCE) and 1,2-dichloroethene (1,2-DCE). The demonstration project was originally designed to evaluate TCE and 1,2-DCE removal efficiency using soil mixing coupled with vapor stripping. Treatability study results, however, indicated that mixed region vapor stripping (MRVS) coupled with calcium oxide (dry lime powder) injection would improve TCE and 1,2-DCE removal efficiency in saturated soils. The scope of the KCP DSM demonstration evolved to implement DSM with the following in situ treatment methodologies for contaminant source reduction in soil and groundwater: DSM/MRVS coupled with calcium oxide injection; DSM/bioaugmentation; and DSM/chemical oxidation using potassium permanganate. Laboratory treatability studies were started in 1995 following collection of undisturbed soil cores from the KCP. These studies were conducted at ORNL, and the results provided information on optimum reagent concentrations and mixing ratios for the three in situ treatment agents to be implemented in the field demonstration