Soil Washing at Vineland Chemical Superfund Site ART Engineering, LLC Design, Construction and Commissioning of Soil Washing Treatment Facility for US EPA and US Army Corps of Engineers
Soil Screening
Soil Treatment Plant		Soil Extraction

Introduction

The Vineland Chemical Co. manufactured herbicides from 1950 to 1994 on this 54-acre site in a residential and industrial area in Vineland, N.J. Arsenic by-products from these operations resulted in contamination of soil and groundwater at the site. In late 2001, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) selected ART Engineering LLC (under contract to Sevenson Environmental Services, Inc.) to conduct detailed design activities to prepare a  final remedial design for soil washing treatment of an estimated 400,000 tons of contaminated soil located at the Plant Site (OU1) and Blackwater Branch (OU3) areas. 

The use of soil washing treatment plant  at Vineland Chemical Superfund Site has been classified by USACE and EPA as a "great success" EPA Reference Letter.pdf. The project was highlighted in recent USACE publication "The Corps Environment, April 2005, Vol 6. No.2".  The soil treatment plant has a treatment capacity of  70 tph and includes the following unit operations: wet screening, separation (hydrocyclones), soil extraction, arsenic precipitation, leachate regeneration, water clarification, sand dewatering, fines thickening & filter press dewatering. The arsenic contamination is concentrated in small volume of filter cake residue which is shipped off-site for disposal at a permitted disposal facility.

Plant Fabrication	Equipment Assembly	Leach Tanks - Installation
Soil Feeding	Contaminated Soil Feed	Soil Screening
Sand Leaching	Arsenic Precipitation	Clean Soil

The primary tasks performed by ART were as follows:

• Develop a 3 D block model for contaminant (Arsenic) distribution in the soil

• Perform a process optimization study to determine optimum process configuration

• Prepare the excavation sequence, staging and backfill plan

• Prepare estimate for plant capital cost

• Prepare 100% process design

• Prepare equipment procurement specifications

• Preparation of plant operations and operator training manuals

• Provide plant commissioning and start-up services

• Provide operator training

The 100% process design documents and equipment procurement specifications were submitted in mid 2002 for review by USEPA, USACE, and New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP).  USEPA and USACE approved the ART design for construction late 2002. Construction activities included construction of a plant building, soil treatment plant, plant support systems, chemical storage area and outside contaminated and clean soil storage pads. Plant construction was completed in fall of 2003. After a brief commissioning and prove-out phase the plant assumed full-scale operations at original design rate of 56 tph. ART performed a comprehensive plant optimization in July 2004. Through plant optimization effort,  production rate was increased from 56 tph to 70 tph resulting in estimated savings of $3 M for the life of the project. The soil washing operations were completed in the fall of 2007. A total of 410,000 tons were processed through the soil washing plant.

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