Thursday, January 28, 2010
The Point
I am very interested in the most important resource we have: water. Energy, food, and economic growth all depend on a steady supply of clean water. Many of our water sources are unusable due to many types of contamination, all needing a different solution. The best thing is to keep the water clean in the first place. However, the clean up or remediation of water is now just as important. New techniques of remediation mean clean water in areas that are very polluted. Remediation is rapidly becoming a very important part of groundwater management. I will be exploring current and new technologies in remediation and what they mean for the future.
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Certainly, clean water is a geological resource that is ever increasing demand. What current geologic techniques exist for groundwater remediation?
ReplyDeleteThe type of technique used depends on the type of pollution that is to be remediated. For VOC's (Volatile Organic Compounds), the current way is to use air stripping. The water is sprayed into the air and the VOC's volatilize out of the water. The water then can be used in a public water supply, or re-injected back into the formation. In many cases, simply pumping out the water and treating it in a wastewater treatment plant, can effect enough change in the water to make it useful again. I have been doing some research on some very specialized plants that treat water for specific contaminants in a step by step process. These plants are site specific, but with the levels of contamination in those areas, the plants can be a very good investment.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever done any water quality examinations using insect larvae?
ReplyDeleteI haven't, that would be a very good idea. Using the insects as a water quality indicator is a good idea. I have seen other reasearch where insects were used in an air contamination situation.
ReplyDeleteI am aware that there may be some pollutants that cannot be treated, or at least treatment is under development. In some cases, the cause for this may be related to environmental concerns. Or money.
ReplyDeleteFor example, a city near my hometown gets water from what has become a Radon-contaminated subsurface aquifer. Treatments (that I am not all-too-familiar with) include ion exchange, lime softening, filtration, and reverse osmosis.
The main issue with the city is that treatment methods are more costly than paying off the EPA.
My question: if you do treat, what do you do with the Radium? What do you do with any chemical residual waste?
I will have to look into radon treatment. Radon is a gas that is usually let into the atmosphere when trying to keep it out of a basement. The VOC's that contaminate a lot of water, actually breakdown quite rapidly in the atmosphere. They are mostly a problem when they are dissolved in the water.
ReplyDeleteI have read of a few cases where the chemicals that were extracted from the water had economic value in manufacturing. Some of the chemicals are dangerous in one form, but can be altered to another form that is benign and can be readily disposed without harmful side effects.
Without some increase in usage, there are many times that paying a fine or other cost to a regulatory agency is cheaper than fixing a problem. Until the indirect costs of these pollutants are factored in, often doing the "right" thing is more expensive.
This is kind of off the subject but I feel that it does pertain to water remediation. When you drill for oil you have excess brine water that you pump into pits then this water is disposed of. Have you heard of anyways that are cost effective to make this water clean so you don't have to dispose in a salt water disposal well?
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard of any good uses for it. Last I knew, they were just injecting into the formation as a means of disposal. Though, there have been cases of contamnination from the injection of the brine. It moved along the drill hole into a nearby water producing formation.
ReplyDelete