# TPH-DRO contaminated soil



## FLBuff PE (Oct 12, 2010)

Is anyone familiar with the landfarming/composting process for bioremediating Total Petroleum Hydrocarbon-Diesel Range Organics (TPH-DRO) contaminated soil? My site is in a rural part of Colorado, and I think this is a good alternative for them (I have verbal approval from the state). Any papers showing that this works would be helpful. I am obviously willing to pay for any copyrighted material.


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## snickerd3 (Oct 12, 2010)

I've only done composting with explosives contaminated soils. WE did have small amounts of TPH soils that they used the same treatment on, but I don't think they wrote anything up on it. sevenson environmental is who the subcontractor was. they did bio treament all the time...they may be able to get you the info you need.


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## FLBuff PE (Oct 12, 2010)

Thanks, snick. I actually found a lab study that indicates adding manure/straw to the soil in a land farming operation will bioremediate the soils. I even found an image of the operation in the town where my property is! Apparently, I just needed to poke around some more.


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## snickerd3 (Oct 12, 2010)

thats what we used too. but added some wood chips and corn mesh in addition


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## FLBuff PE (Oct 12, 2010)

What was your typical time to bioremdiate? I know it depends on how bad the contamination is, but from what I've seen it could be just a matter of months to get it below the regulatory limit.


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## snickerd3 (Oct 13, 2010)

we treated ours in windrows in large open ended buildings, towards the end they did some out in the open, but depending on concentrations and moisture content (wet soil is not favorable) we probably averaged about 35-40 days. we had some in the 80-100 day range but we would also get some that were done in 20-25 days. once it hit the 35-40 day average if there were only a couple of sections that were still hot they would remove the passing soil an work the still hot soil into the next windrow setup. It was a multi-yr project and they ended up treating 275K+ dry tons of contaminated soil. What's nice is the bio is the treatment really doesn't stop when you reach the reg limits the bugs will continue to degrade the contamination. We got darn close to none detects on a good portion of it.


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## FLBuff PE (Oct 13, 2010)

Nice! WARNING! BUZZWORD APPEARING SOON! I can also sell this as a 'green' option to treat it.


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## snickerd3 (Oct 13, 2010)

yep. You can also use buzz words/pharses like recycle and supported local economy etc. if you get the straw/manure or other amendments locally. all the amendments we used were obtained free of charge and local. The stable was more than willing to give away the stable bedding instead of having to dispose of it, a local ethanol plant was also more than willing to give away the corn mesh for free.


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## FLBuff PE (Oct 13, 2010)

snickerd3 said:


> yep. You can also use buzz words/pharses like recycle and supported local economy etc. if you get the straw/manure or other amendments locally. all the amendments we used were obtained free of charge and local. The stable was more than willing to give away the stable bedding instead of having to dispose of it, a local ethanol plant was also more than willing to give away the corn mesh for free.


I had thought about that, and was going to mention it to my client when they call after getting my report (which will happen).


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## snickerd3 (Oct 13, 2010)

benefical reuse is another one of those terms


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