• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Microbes to Clean Seal Beach Groundwater

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS081231-06
Release Date: 12/31/2008 8:36:00 PM

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jose Lopez, Jr., Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach Public Affairs

SEAL BEACH, Calif. (NNS) -- Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southwest has instituted a cutting-edge treatment of contaminated groundwater at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach that will save the Navy more than $3 million and cut cleanup time by two-thirds.

In the largest use of bioaugmentation to date, a bacteria culture will be used to treat chlorinated solvent contaminants in the groundwater beneath the base in an area about two-thirds of a mile long, half of a mile wide and 180 feet deep.

"We are injecting emulsified vegetable oil (EVO) and a bacteria culture called KB-1 that is capable of degrading the solvents in the ground," said Pei-Fen Tamashiro, installation restoration program manager at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach.

Researchers believe that the water was contaminated in the 1960s when the facility was used to manufacture the second stage rocket of the Saturn V launch vehicle for the Apollo space program. Although the contaminated plume is not used as a drinking water source, if it is not treated it could eventually contaminate other aquifers in the area.

Tamashiro will supervise the injection of EVO and KB-1 in more than 200 injection wells around the contaminated area to form six bio-barriers. From there, the contaminated water will flow through the barriers encountering the microbes that will treat the solvents.

"The bioremediation process allows us to treat the solvents in place," said Tamashiro, who also added that by treating the solvents in place the Navy avoids worsening sea water intrusion in the area.

If the Navy were not to employ this program, the water would have to be pumped to and treated on the surface. Doing so takes longer to treat the site and would cost the Navy more money. With the bioremediation process the cleanup will take 15 years, instead of the 50-plus years it would take using the traditional pump-and-treat method.

According to Tamashiro, this technology has been in development for the last two decades, with engineers focusing on seeing what conditions were needed to degrade hazardous chemicals naturally. In the last 10 years it was found that some chemicals do not degrade naturally with local microbes, but that the right microbes could be brought in to assist the process. The microbes used at the Seal Beach site are a natural culture the area lacks.

"Though we currently anticipate no adverse affects either on the installation or in the local community as the result of contaminated ground water from site 70, we will pursue cleanup efforts with a sense of urgency," said Capt. John Kurtz, commanding officer, Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach. "In the long run, everyone will benefit from a cleaner environment."

For more news from Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, visit www.navy.mil/local/sealbeach/.