Evaluating the Effectiveness of Ground Water Extraction Systems

The most common process for remediating contaminated ground water is extraction and treatment. Data from 19 on-going and completed ground water extraction systems were collected and analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of this process in achieving cleanup concentration goals for ground water. This analysis indicated several trends including: containment of ground water plumes was usually achieved; contaminant concentrations dropped significantly initially followed by a leveling out; after the period of initial rapid decline, the continued decreases in concentration were usually slower than anticipated; and certain data important to optimizing system design and operation had often not been collected during the site characterization phase. Factors limiting the achievement of cleanup concentration goals fell into four basic categories: hydrogeological factors; contaminant-related factors; continued migration from source areas and the size of the plume itself; and system design factors. The findings of the study indicate that ground water extraction is an effective method for preventing additional migration of contaminant plumes and achieving risk reduction. However, the findings indicate that in many situations, it may not be practicable to rely solely on ground water extraction and treatment to achieve health-based cleanup concentrations throughout the contaminated zone and fulfill the primary goal of returning groundmore » water to beneficial use.« less