Green Remediation Focus

EPA Region 9 conducted a study to quantify the environmental footprints of three remedial alternatives for corrective action at the Romic Environmental Technologies Corporation (Romic) facility in East Palo Alto, CA. Primary study parameters include generation of greenhouse gas, criteria pollutants, and air toxics and use of water during site investigation and remedy construction, operations and maintenance (O&M), and long-term monitoring. The study explores the level of detail needed to make informed decisions that reduce the environmental footprint of implementing a typical remedy and uses new methods to:

• Identify or develop appropriate and applicable footprint conversion factors for energy, materials, and services involved in remedy implementation
• Estimate footprints of up to 15 environmental parameters for implementing the remedial alternatives
• Estimate the footprint contribution from onsite activities, transportation, and non-transportation offsite activities
• Identify components of the remedial alternatives that significantly affect the footprint and other components with negligible effects, and
• Conduct a sensitivity analysis for variations in remedy design, conversion factors, or other input values.

Remedial alternatives for Romic involved in situ bioremediation, pump and treat (P&T) technology, or hybrid implementation of the two technologies. The study methodology, results, and additional details are provided in:

• Environmental Footprint Analysis of Three Potential Remedies: Former Romic Environmental Technologies Corporation Facility, East Palo Alto, California (66 pp, 3.58MB) Final Report, May 11, 2010
• Appendix A: Remedy Inventory Sheets (99 pp, 2.09MB) comprising a set of spreadsheet modules to document remedy parameters and calculate the level of effort and use of fuel, electricity, water, and materials when implementing the hybrid technology alternative
• Appendix B: Footprint Conversion Factors (80 pp, 859.20K) for energy, materials, and waste management
• Appendix C: Footprinting Spreadsheet Output - Primary Analysis (83 pp, 4.08MB) provides all data generated regarding onsite activities, transportation, and offsite activities
• Appendix D: Footprinting Spreadsheet Output - Secondary Analysis (73 pp, 4.74MB) provides all generated data regarding site investigation, excavation, construction, O&M, long-term monitoring, and decommissioning
• Appendix E: Remedy Inventory Sheets and Footprinting Spreadsheet Output - Bioremediation Sensitivity Analysis (101 pp, 1.29MB) provides generated data from the sensitivity analysis of bioremediation variables
• Appendix F: Remedy Inventory Sheets and Footprinting Spreadsheet Output - P&T Sensitivity Analysis (201 pp, 13.40MB) provides generated data from the sensitivity analysis of P&T variables

If you have thoughts or comments on this Study:

EPA is interested in hearing your thoughts and ideas about this Study. We plan to conduct analyses similar to this one at additional sites, improving the framework of the analysis at each step. Comments or questions can be forwarded to:

Karen Scheuermann, EPA Region 9: scheuermann.karen@epa.gov or 415-972-3356
Carlos Pachon, EPA OSRTI: pachon.carlos@epa.gov or 703-603-9904