Innovative Application of Bioaugmentation in a Fractured Rock Environment at New Jersey Naval Air Warfare Center
The Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) in West Trenton, New Jersey, was used as a jet engine testing facility from the mid 1950s to the late 1990s. The facility routinely used large quantities of chlorinated solvents, primarily trichloroethene (TCE), as cooling and heat transfer fluids. Operations at the site resulted in the release of an estimated 100,000 gallons of TCE to the environment. The concentration of TCE in groundwater at the site has been measured at concentrations up to 200 parts per million (ppm). The initial remediation response by others involved the installation of a pumping and treatment (P&T) system for groundwater (1993). While the system has removed a substantial mass of contaminants, after ten years of operation, concentrations of TCE in groundwater had not decreased. The Navy asked Geosyntec to develop an approach that would accelerate contaminant mass reduction in the subsurface, thus reducing the length of time that the P&T system would operate.
