Optimized air sparging coupled with soil vapor extraction to remediate groundwater

Air sparging coupled with soil vapor extraction (AS/SVE) has obvious benefits for groundwater contamination consisting of volatile organic compounds, particularly benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, and xylenes (BTEX). Although AS/SVE is easily employed given suitable site conditions, optimized AS/SVE system operation and monitoring (O/M) are often overlooked once treatment is initiated. Site O/M typically is conducted with on-site field staff, or as an alternative, by remotely connecting to the site via modem and programmable logic controller (PLC). Two AS/SVE sites located in Wisconsin have used either traditional on-site O/M or the remote modem/PLC option to evaluate and optimize system operation. System on-time efficiency using remote telemetry was improved compared to traditional O/M and system operations.