Groundwater Treatment and Control

Groundwater treatment is an important remediation effort to ensure groundwater is safe for humans as well as minimizing the impact that contaminants may pose to the environment. This also includes the treatment of soil and sediment should it be contaminated as a result of coming into contact with contaminated groundwater. 

Our solutions protect the environment and human health.

Permeable Reactive Barriers (PRB) are installed across the flow path of a contaminated plume. As groundwater flows through the PRB, contaminants are either degraded or retained in a concentrated form by the reactive material.

CETCO ORGANOCLAY products are used for control of non-aqeuous phase liquid (NAPL). In a variable PRB, the ORGANOCLAY adsorbs the NAPL and creates a low permeable zone that retards the NAPL layer. Zones above DNAPL layers and below LNAPL layers remain permeable to groundwater flow, thus preventing groundwater mounding. Our ORGANOCLAY products can also adsorb low-soluble dissolved organics in groundwater.

Slurry walls are a non-structural, low permeability vertical barrier used to stop the flow of groundwater. Slurry walls can be an effective groundwater and source control remedy for most sites. High quality sodium bentonite from CETCO lowers the hydraulic conductivity of the slurry wall and can be used for both soil-bentonite and cement-bentonite slurry walls. 

While granular activated carbon (GAC) is proven to be effective at adsorbing dissolved organics from contaminated groundwater, it can be fouled by NAPL. As a result, CETCO offers ORGANOCLAY filtration media to improve the efficiency of activated carbon filtration systems. 

An ORGANOCLAY vessel can be placed in series prior to the GAC vessel to strip the NAPL before it reaches the GAC or as a post-treatment. By incorporating ORGANOCLAY into your ex situ pump & treat system, you can significantly extend the life of the GAC, resulting in reduced replacement and disposal costs.