The chemical contamination at the Spectron, Inc. Superfund site six miles north of Elkton, MD, is finally getting cleaned up.
TerraTherm, Inc., has announced that it has been awarded a $6.9 million contract to clean up the spill in Cecil County. Using its patented Thermal Conductive Heating (TCH) to heat the soil and shallow groundwater at the site to about 100 degrees Celsius, they will be able to remove the chemical from the subsurface and then use a thermal oxidiser to destroy the contamination.
These groundwater remediation technologies are commonly used at hazard waste sites such as the one in Elkton. In the U.S., around 80% of such sites have negatively affected nearby groundwater, which is often used as a drinking water source for Americans.
Sites that are part of the Superfund are designated by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, which is a federal law that regulates the clean up of hazardous waste sites.
TerraTherm’s process is expected to remove 99% of the contamination in the soil.
The site started out as a water-powered paper mill from the mid-1800s to 1946. Between 1962 and 1988, it was used as a recycling and treatment facility for electronic, pharmaceutical, paint, lacquer, coatings, and chemical recycling.
In 1994, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency added the site to its National Priorities List, which names the most serious hazardous waste sites in the country.
The EPA teamed up with the Maryland Department of the Environment to pursue the remediation work, along with a group of companies whose waste was recycled at the plant in the 1960s through the mid-’80s.
David Fennimore, President of Earth Data Northeast, Inc. and the Group’s project coordinator, commented that the project should be a success. “The Group was encouraged by the success of the TerraTherm technology at other sites and looks forward to meeting EPA’s remedial objectives and ultimately restoring the property to beneficial use within the community,” he said.
Projects such as this aren’t unique to Elkton. An October 2014 report from the McIlvaine Company estimates that $14 billion or more will be spent to remove metals, volatile organic compounds, and other contaminants from groundwater at Superfund, EPA Resource and Recovery Act and Department of Defense sites.