Andrea holds a Masters of Environmental Science from Taylor University, with a focus on Earth and Physical Sciences. Upon graduation her desire was to work with a company that would challenge her daily, and AcuityES’s concept of digging deeper and asking the right questions attracted her to become part of the team. “Acuity is not the typical environmental company; it is constantly using innovative technology to help its clients in the most efficient way possible. Once I became aware of the forward-thinking experts that I would be working with, I knew I wanted to be part of Acuity”.

Growing up in South America, Andrea, native of Venezuela, stepped out of her comfort zone to pursue a successful education and career in the US. The challenges she has faced through this process have attributed to her success, and she brings a special dedication to AcuityES.  “It is encouraging to be surrounded by bright and knowledgeable people, it drives me to learn and be challenged daily.”

AcuityES was well represented both in attendance and organization. MSECA board member and AcuityES’ own Dr. Richard Christensen coordinated the speakers and agenda for this conference. AcuityES’ president Steve Irvin gave a presentation on the use of geochemical parameters to establish a Site conceptual model.

(above: MSECA President Michael Schutz (left) and Executive Director Bill Greer)

(above: AcuityES Principal Engineer Steve Irvin)

Sponsored by the NASF’s Midwest Florida Branch, Orlando Branch South and Florida Branch,
the NASF Mid-Winter Surface Finishing Conference & Exposition is three days of
educational seminars and information for anyone in the finishing industry.

Rouse will be speaking about In-Situ Remediation of Hexavalent Chromium, Antimony and Nickel by Nano-Scale Ferrous Sulfide Slurry. For more information and registration, please visit their site.

The CCA plant was originally built and operated by the South Australian government to stimulate the timber industry. It was located over cavernous limestone, and approximately 1 kilometer upgradient of Blue Lake, a tourist feature and the water supply source of 25,000 people. During initial plant operation by the state, hexavalent chromium percolated from the surface through vertical solution features into the water table, at a depth of 16 meters, and began to move toward the lake. The state then sold the property to a company active in the timber industry, with the requirement that the contamination be characterized and cleaned up.

The original consultant proposed a ‘pump and treat’ remedial approach, which was estimated to require from 35 to 350 years at a cost of 5 to 50 million Australian dollars. The timber company then contacted Jim Rouse, who proposed an in-situ approach, the first of its kind in Australia, with a time and cost estimate of two years and Aust. $2,000,000. The company abandoned the old plant and built a new plant at a new location, which enabled the construction of an infiltration basin to allow chemical reductant to be infiltrated through the silt-filled vertical solution features that had served as the original route the contaminant took to reach the ground water. Ground water was pumped from the plume, treated, and used as the carrier to transport the reductant solution down into the ground water.

After approximately 2 years (and a cost of approximately Aust. $2,000,000), the state of South Australia issued a ‘Monitored Natural Attenuation’ agreement to the company (again the first to be obtained in Australia), and subsequent monitoring has produced evidence that there is no significant contamination during ten years of evaluation.

Here is an unabridged transcript of Jim Rouse addressing some CCA remediation project tips.

Begin transcript >

Let’s get to the heart of the matter: working within the wood-preservation industry you have had to deal with CAA issues. It’s a messy issue, but what can you really do?

I am Jim Rouse, an active member of the American Wood Preservation Association since the 1980s. My career has always been steeped in elite environmental remediation research, techniques and projects. As such I have had the chance to be an active consultant within the Wood-preservation industry. I am now part of the AcuityES team. Together we are a dynamic, best-in-breed environmental remediation solution provider for projects as large as base closures for the Department of Defense to projects as self-contained as a ground water contamination issue for a local neighborhood.

AcuityES understands the tight-knit, realtionship-driven nature of the the timber-preservation industry and want to simply share some information from our collective experience to help you make better-informed decisions regarding your CCA (chromated copper arsenate) issues. Let’s face it: CCA contamination issues have been a painful thorn in the side of the timber industry for over 30 years, but what has become more painful are financial burdens created by ineffective “pump & treat” solutions within the industry. Bluntly, this is using the wrong tool on the wrong problem. More and more I have heard business owners and executives discuss the capital outlay of a pump & treat solution as being painful THEN adding on top of that the 20 years (or more) year outlay covering operating and maintenance costs for a solution that simply will not work in our lifetimes (if ever).

Please allow us to share a few CCA-related points on the subject which might be of help:

1: Use Operating Funds vs. Capital Investment
It is far better and cheaper to address these CCA remediation issues in a cost-effective system while you have a site that is generating revenue, rather than the other options: either simply containing the problem or waiting until facility closure. Throwing significant resources into escrow damages your cash flow and leavues with few financial options other than to continue to throw money in the proverbial “pump & treat” hole.

2: Effective Treatment and Control
The biggest non-secret in the industry is simple: pump & treat will not bring closure to a CCA contaminated site. Pump & treat is effective at CEASING the spread and adds to containment, but closure within a human lifetime? Not happening. I haven’t seen one work effectively.

It truly is a black and white issue. The sooner everyone accepts the truth, the better decisions we can all make.

3: Know your options
There are other technical solutions to your CCA-related issues than just “pump & treat.” Pump and treat has become such a de facto “business safe” solution to keep people from being fired that better alternatives have often been ignored or suppressed. In Situ techniques provide closure – real closure – in months to years, NOT in decades to centuries. One of the first in situ sites I worked on was being told by the previous consultant 35 to 350 years and $5 t0 $50 million … based on eye-balling data I estimated 2 years / $2 million and those numbers held when the client gave me the project. Site closure and results are attainable today.

4: Start SOLVING your CCA problem. Today.
Pump & treat solutions are a (virtually) never ending money hole. Just let AcuityES take a look at your current data and solution set up. The better solution may be to modify your current pump& treat solutions to a viable direction. Look, we don’t want to see you feel like you are starting at Square 1, but just let us take alook under the hood to see what is really going on.

Contact us at AcuityES.com to start solving the problem by asking the right questions.

>>>>>>>

If we can be of help, just fill out this format to get started:

Webb, a project hydrogeologist, was blunt in her assessment. “In the past I have worked in situations that allowed finances to drive decisions. We passed over contemporary solutions because we knew the client wouldn’t question ‘accepted’ practices regardless whether they were less effective or grossly outdated; so long as they were the ‘cheaper’ solution.” She continued “AcuityES is constantly trying to learn how to solve problems better. There is not an automatic ‘remedy plan’ until we understand everything that’s going on.”

Webb comes to AcuityES with an accomplished track record in groundwater flow and contaminant fate and transport modeling. She has enjoyed the challenge of being assimilated into the Acuity investigative model of ‘ask the right questions’, which she says is a refreshing departure from ‘the industry norm.’

Robyn Toole echoed similar remarks. “I was drawn to AcuityES by the company attitude that there are no assumptions of prescribed project remedies.”

Toole comes to AcuityES after more than five years in the water / wastewater industry doing planning and design work for municipal clients. Her graduate work at Purdue University focused on developing the passive flux meter (PFM) technology (while studying under Dr. P Suresh Rao) for use in plume characterization of tetrachloroethene, trichloroethene, hexavalent chromium, and perchlorate affected sites.

AcuityES wholeheartedly welcomes Sarah and Robyn to the team.

The paper highlights a remediation project conducted at a former plating facility, located in Muncie, IN, where the release of chromic acid resulted in extensive hexavalent chromium, antimony, arsenic and nickel contamination of the vadose and saturated environment. The impacted groundwater plume extended from the former site under adjacent streets, a park and into the surrounding residential area.

A series of bench tests established that the best reagent to remediate the contaminants was a suspension of nano-scale ferrous sulfide particles in an aqueous solution of polysulfide. Remediation of the vadose zone down to the water table at 15 feet was achieved using soil blending techniques which enabled the in situ application of the ferrous sulfide reagent.  In situ remediation of groundwater was achieved by introducing via pressure injection the ferrous sulfide slurry through a grid-based system of borings across the footprint of the plume.

Confirmative soil samples collected from the vadose zone showed that no samples had detectable hexavalent chromium and other contaminants had been geochemically fixated. Confirmation sampling of groundwater indicated complete remediation of nickel by the first quarter sampling event.  In addition, groundwater sampling also demonstrated that chromium and antimony had been remediated to project cleanup objectives after 5 quarters of sampling.  Detections of arsenic in groundwater at concentrations slightly above cleanup objectives still persist; however, detections are isolated and have decreased by orders of magnitude.  Current results will be presented as part of the paper.

Mr. Sloffer has an intriguing background as having grown up in Bloomington, Indiana and graduating from Indiana University, Twice.  What’s most interesting is the time spent between degrees.

Mr. Sloffer shares that “I received my undergraduate degree in Physics from IU, and then joined the Peace Corps to teach Physics and Chemistry at a high school in the South Pacific.  While living on a small island, I became intrigued with clean water environmental issues.”  Upon Mr. Sloffer’s stateside return, he enrolled at IU to pursue graduate studies in environmental science with a concentration in environmental chemistry, toxicology and risk assessment, and later earned a Certified Hazardous Materials Manager (CHMM) credential.

Mr. Sloffer’s experiences have required his active role in investigation of environmental sites throughout Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.  He has also been on the front lines of multiple remediation projects of varying size and scope, including remediation via ERH (electrical resistive heating).

AcuityES

Download the PDF of the article here: Acutiy_USBR_Summer2011

Services to the Mining, Timber Preservation and Plating Industries can range from the inclusion of geochemical protection in the design of new facilities, better operational understanding of monitoring data at operational sites, and cost-effective, environmentally-appropriate remediation techniques of contamination both while the facility is in operation and during closure. For the most part, these remedial activities will be in-situ in nature, duplicating the natural reactions that bind metals and radionuclides into minimally-soluble minerals.

Steve Irvin, Principal at AcuityES, has a simple philosophy when it comes to expanding AcuityES’s reach. “We saw the opportunity to add Jim (Jimmy) Rouse to our team as a major expansion of Acuity’s expertise. Not just for his first-person work and experience; but as a way to proliferate his focus on in situ remediation techniques to remediate dissolved mobile metals, metalloids and radionuclides often found in mining operations; plating facilities; automotive industry sites and timber-preservation facilities; Jim is an internationally recognized expert in these areas. He brings us the technical and practical depth to lift AcuityES’s solution offerings even further.”

Mr. Rouse has 50 years of relevant experience, including 17 years with various Federal agencies and 33 years as a consultant to industry throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, Scotland and New Zealand. He is internationally known for his work on the subsurface behavior of heavy metals and radionuclides, and has developed innovative approaches for in-situ remediation of metals, especially hexavalent chromium, in soil and ground water. Mr. Rouse has authored more than 50 publications, dealing with the subject of natural and man-aided attenuation of heavy metals; radiochemicals; cyanide contamination; and vadose zone monitoring. He has made a number of presentations to technical meetings and taught numerous short courses. He has been qualified as an expert witness approximately 30 times, in the area of heavy metal and radiochemical migration and remediation.