Steam injection vacuum extraction technology demonstration, Naval Air Station, Lemoore, California

A leaking underground pipeline released jet fuel (JP5) into the soils and groundwater beneath Site 17 at NAS, Lemoore in California`s central San Joaquin Valley. To evaluate innovative technologies, the Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center (Port Hueneme, CA) awarded OHM a contract for design, construction and operation of a Steam Injection Vacuum Extraction (SIVE) system for remediation of contaminated soil and groundwater and recovery of JP5. Two steam injection wells, five extraction wells, and fourteen temperature monitoring wells were installed. Facies analyses during drilling revealed three hydrostratigraphic units; basal clay aquitard, perched sandy aquifer and silty vadose zone. Groundwater was encountered at sixteen feet below ground surface. JP5 was encountered in all three hydrostratigraphic units and a capillary fringe of JP5 was present within the silty vadose zone and sandy aquifer. A layer of JP5 was present floating in the sandy aquifer. The SIVE system was based upon the direct volatilization and steam stripping of volatile organic compounds and recovery of JP5 from the subsurface. The major process equipment included eight pneumatic total liquid downhole pumps, air compressor, steam boiler, two heat exchangers, vacuum blower, two oil/water separators. and vapor and aqueous phase carbon adsorbers. Steam generated from the boilermore » was injected into the subsurface soil via the injection wells. The JP5 contaminant (vapor and liquid phases) was extracted to the above ground system for treatment prior to discharge.« less