Accepted pump and treat technologies can be costly due to protracted lengths of contaminated groundwater cleanup projects. Present practices utilizing recirculating nutrient and oxygen-amended water have resulted in aquifer fouling due to mineral precipitation or biomass accumulation. The goal of this proposal is to develop an in situ method to contain and treat contaminated groundwater. Air sparging can be used to meet this goal.Mass transfer processes have been utilized in remedial technologies such as air stripping and vacuum extraction. An air sparging interdiction field also utilizes the mass transfer processes, which can then be coupled with in situ bioremediation. To further develop the use of air sparging to contain and treat contaminated groundwater, a series of air sparging studies in a five by four by three-foot plexiglass though are proposed. The trough will be filled with uniform beach sand and saturated with a toluene-contaminated water source. These studies, performed at three groundwater velocities, will be used to determine the air-to-water flow rate required to strip the contaminants and to determine the amount of oxygen transferred to the water. The oxygen uptake values will be used in a computer model simulation of biodegradation potential.
