Evaluation of stimulated reductivedechlorination in situ of chlorinatedsolvents at a site in Huddinge : using principal component analysis, partialleast square regression and degradation

Sammanfattning: The method of using stimulated reductive dechlorination when remediating sites contaminated with chlorinated solvents is not unusual, but not many studies have been done on the overall process outside of a controlled environment. In order to investigate the process, principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least square (PLS) regression was used to identify the most important parameters for the degradation of the chlorinated solvents. The most important parameter for all chlorinated compounds turned out to be oxygen, with levels of degradation products increasing with decreasing levels of dissolved oxygen. Dissolved oxygen was deemed the most important variable to measure during a control program on the site. The degradation dynamics of the process were investigated to examine the behaviour of the chlorinated solvents and their degradation products. The degradation products of the main contaminant TCE were found in all observation points, which indicates an ongoing reductive dechlorination all over the site. A large amount of the mother product, TCE, was found in two observation points, which were believed to be situated close to the sources of the TCE contamination. Over the observation period of 2,5 years the levels of TCE in the source areas decreased significantly to below the remediation goal. However, the levels of TCE increased in another observation point further downstream, with concentrations still increasing at the end of this study. The levels in this point were lower than those measured initially in the source area, but still much higher than the accepted values. Possible reasons for this appearance of TCE could be an isolated sheet of contaminants being pushed into the observation point from a nearby location or transport of the contaminants from the source area in units of higher conductivity such as sand lenses or fractures in the clayey soil.