Performance Monitoring, Site Characterization

• U.S. Air Force
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 1
• Technology Innovation Office, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation (SITE) Program

• Chlorinated Solvents
• Trichloroethane (TCE)
• Tetrachloroethylene (PCE)

View looking down at research area, Loring Air Force Base, Maine. White tubing is part of the steam injection setup (photo courtesy of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) (Click on photo for larger version)

The U.S. Air Force implemented a steam-injection remediation project in fractured limestone contaminated with volatile organic compounds, in order to flush the contaminated ground water into extraction wells and to vaporize volatiles that can then be removed through a vapor extraction system. USGS scientists conducted geophysical borehole surveys to determine if borehole radar could be used to monitor the steam injection remediation. Borehole-radar, temperature, and electromagnetic induction logs and surface-to-borehole radar logs were collected before the steam injection began and shortly after the start of the steam injection in September 2002. Data processing and analysis is underway to explore the use of geophysical methods to image changes in subsurface material properties caused by the heat of the steam.

• USGS Develops Geophysical Methods to Improve Remediation Monitoring and Site Characterization
• Borehole Radar Monitoring of a Steam-Injection Remediation Pilot Study, Loring Air Force Base, Limestone, Maine
• US EPA Steam Enhanced Remediation Research for DNAPL in Fractured Rock Loring Air Force Base, Limestone, Maine, EPA/540/R-05/010
• Loring Air Force Base, Limestone, Maine, Waste Site Cleanup and Reuse in New England, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Public Health Assessment of Loring Air Force Base by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

• Grégoire, C., Lane, J.W., Jr., and Joesten, P.K., 2005, Steam injection pilot study in a contaminated fractured limestone (Maine, USA)—Modeling and analysis of borehole radar reflection data, in Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Advanced Ground Penetrating Radar, Delft, The Netherlands, May 2-4, 2005.
• Grégoire, C., Lane J.W., Jr., and Joesten, P.K., 2004, Application of borehole radar for monitoring stream-enhanced remediation of a contaminated site in fractured limestone, Maine, USA, in Hack, R., Azzam, R., and Charlier, R., eds., Engineering Geology for Infrastructure Planning in Europe—a European Perspective, Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences: Berlin, Germany, Springer-Verlag, p. 385-392.
• Grégoire, C., Lane, J.W., Jr., and Loesten, P.K., 2004, The use of borehole radar tomography to monitor a stream injection pilot study in a contaminated fractured limestone, in EAGE (European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers) Near Surface Geophysics meeting, Utrecht, The Netherlands, September 6-9, 2004: Houton, The Netherlands, European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers, 4 p.

Geophysical Methods Research

• Branch of Geophysics Research with the Toxic Substances Hydrology Program
• The Application of Geophysical Logging to Hydrogeological Investigations
• Geophysical Monitoring of the Use of a Biostimulation Technology to Remediate Contaminated Ground Water
• Borehole-Geophysical Monitoring of a Blast-Fracture Extraction Trench
• Borehole-Geophysical Monitoring of a Contaminated Fractured Rock Aquifer