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# Air Sparging for Contaminated Soil Cleanup
#### What is Air Sparging?
Air Sparging is a process that removes pollutants from the earth using horizontal remediation wells. There are a handful of methods to choose from to eliminate hazardous chemicals and other possibly dangerous materials from the affected area.
#### How to Clean up Contaminated Soil?
Contaminated soil cleanup, also known as soil remediation, used to have limited options and was slow. Recently, horizontal remediation wells have become the fastest and most efficient way to clean up contaminated soil. While not all situations call for air sparging using horizontal remediation wells, some situations require them to get to the source of the pollutants where traditional methods fall short.
#### New Methods and Technologies for Contaminated Soils
As with all industries, technology is helping us clean up contaminants and pollution, especially under buildings and other surface obstructions. For example, air sparging through horizontal remediation wells are a technology that allows environmental remediation professionals to aggressively attack the contaminated soils using one or many different remediation methods. One method uses horizontal drilling technology to install wells for soil vapor extraction (SVE).
#### No Disruptions of Operation During Cleanup Benefits
Business activities continue as professionals use air sparging with horizontal remediation wells to clean up the contaminated area. The equipment to access the pollutants can be set up safely a distance away, allowing normal daily activities.
#### More Benefits of Using Horizontal Wells to Clean Up Soil Contamination
The other benefits of using air sparging through horizontal remediation wells technology for soil remediation include the following:
* Horizontal wells may clean up the contamination faster than traditional vertical well remediation.
* Less remediation equipment may be needed due to a more efficient setup of the wells to reach the pollutants.
* There is less disruption to occupants and surrounding areas than excavating and soil cleaning.
* Horizontal wells can reach the pollutant’s source, ensuring the problem will not linger.
#### Let us help you solve your contaminated soil cleanup site challenges
As pioneering leaders of this technology,  and our environmental professional partners have completed contaminated soil cleanup projects previously thought unfeasible. Call us today to bring that level of experience and proven technology to your contaminated site cleanup.
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Wallingford, CT 06492
Over 5,000 Horizontal Remediation Wells Installed Worldwide
## Remediation Wells
## Case Studies by Application
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**NAICS Codes**: **237990** Heavy Equipment & Horizontal Drilling  •  **237110** Water & Sewer Line and Related  •  **541620** Environmental Consulting Services for HRW Screen Design  •  **237130** Underground Cable Lying & Utility Line Construction
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# The Benefits of Horizontal Air Sparging in Groundwater Remediation
Are you using air sparging techniques to target groundwater contamination? Then, more screen-to-contaminant contact is likely your goal. Horizontal remediation wells place hundreds of feet of screen per well directly within the contaminant plume, increasing airflow into the target zones to maximize volatilization.
## Increase Airflow and Screen Contact
A simple orientation change from vertical to horizontal significantly increases airflow and screen contact with contamination in the subsurface. While vertical wells typically contain 10 to 20 feet of screen per well, horizontal remediation wells often contain hundreds of feet or more. When you combine increased screen footage with the 3-dimensional horizontal directional drilling (HDD) navigation control, you receive maximum screen-to-contaminant contact within the target zone. This is particularly useful in air sparging situations because groundwater plumes are almost always more laterally extensive than vertically. It makes sense to install a horizontal well that runs along the axis of the groundwater plume rather than perpendicular to it.
## Provide Access
Horizontal air sparge wells provide access to subsurface locations that are difficult for traditional vertical methods to reach. It is typical for volatile organic carbon (VOC) contamination to exist in places where traditional vertical techniques have difficulty reaching, such as beneath manufacturing facilities, private residences, or commercial buildings. The inability to access source area contamination can keep sites open for years beyond their scheduled timeline. In these situations, the horizontal well can be installed beneath the building or obstruction, targeting the contaminated groundwater with increased volumes of airflow.
#### Situations Where Access Is Not An Issue
While horizontal wells are an excellent technology for providing access to difficult locations through directional drilling, they are also highly effective when access is not an issue. A highly functional application of horizontal wells lies in the context of sparge barriers. Typical vertical barriers may require several tens of wells in a row, relying on preferential pathways to communicate between each well in the barrier. This can create gaps in the remediation efforts, significantly decreasing the effectiveness of the air dispersion. On the other hand, one horizontal well with hundreds of feet of screen can replace an entire row of vertical barrier wells, cutting down on construction costs and infrastructure at the surface. This cost-effectiveness ensures that your investment in remediation is optimized. The increased oxygen delivered via the horizontal air sparge remediation well will enhance the biodegradation process by dispersing significantly more airflow into the subsurface.
How can the advantages offered by decades of technological advancement in horizontal wells benefit your project? Call our horizontal remediation well experts at 1-877-788-4479 to discuss your current project needs, or  to discuss how we can create the most successful outcome for your client together.
Written by: Elliott Andelman, Professional Geologist
# HRWs Often Associated with Accessing Inaccessible Areas
Horizontal remediation wells (HRWs) are often most associated with accessing seemingly inaccessible areas of a site, such as beneath active buildings, railroads, roadways, and more. Though useful in these situations, the benefits of HRWs go far beyond accessibility. Generally, we discover that the performance scale starts to tip in favor of HRWs when five or more vertical wells are proposed for remediation purposes. At this point, consultants often discover a decrease in overall material costs and an increase in performance compared to vertical solutions. The supplemental case studies in this article explore sites where access was not an issue at all, and yet HRWs were the best choice for efficient and rapid remediation.
#### Case Study 1: Horizontal Hydraulic Barrier Replaces Vertical System
At a landfill site, a series of vertical extraction wells acting as a hydraulic barrier were failing and needed replacement. Without a proper barrier in place, 1,4-dioxane leachate was migrating off-site with the risk of impacting several residential neighborhoods. Rather than re-installing several vertical wells in a row, providing limited screen contact with the target lithologic zone, the consultants replaced the proposed vertical wells with one horizontal extraction well. The total well length was 800 feet, with 500 feet of continuous horizontal screen placed directly at the target depth. The well successfully intercepted the contaminants, eliminating excess material costs by removing several vertical wells and providing a more comprehensive radius of influence.
Figure 1: Layout of horizontal hydraulic barrier well at landfill leachate site.
By having one continuous screen in the target zone, the horizontal well helped prevent gaps in the hydraulic barrier caused by ROI communication issues amongst the proposed vertical wells. Utilizing HRWs as part of a barrier design is common in other applications as well. This method has been successfully implemented at other sites for air sparge and soil vapor extraction barriers to prevent migration of the contaminant plume into nearby sensitive receptors, such as homes, businesses, or rivers.
#### Case Study 2: Horizontal Permeable Reactive Barrier Installation
Work-area space was limited for a horizontal permeable reactive barrier (PRB) installation that took place at a former dry-cleaning chlorinated solvent site. Source area contamination was actively migrating southeast and onto adjacent properties. As part of a pilot study, one horizontal injection well was installed perpendicular to the migration pathway along the widest portion of the plume. The target zone was a transmissive 3’-4’ thick sandy layer, roughly 25 feet below the ground surface, that laid on top of impermeable bedrock.
At this site, the client was sensitive to on-site activities and associated restoration to their parking lot. By installing one HRW, multiple vertical well heads at the surface were reduced to one horizontal well head, conveniently placed in the corner of the parking lot. Once activated, the horizontal well achieved a radius of influence of 20’-25’, fully encapsulating the entire transmissive zone and effectively preventing further migration of the source area contamination.
Figure 2: Schematic showing HRW layout. Dashed blue line is the horizontal screen.
In each of these case studies, a single horizontal well was sufficient to meet the performance goals of the project. Neither of the sites had access restraints that would have prevented vertical installations, and yet horizontal wells proved to be the best option for performance and budget.
How can the advantages offered by decades of technological advancement in the field of horizontal wells benefit your project?  Call our horizontal remediation well experts at 1-877-788-4479 to discuss your current project needs or email us at drilling@directionaltech.com with questions, review case studies, and to learn more.
# Positives and negatives of buying or selling a contaminated property
A common reason potential clients reach out to environmental consultants is because they are assessing the positives and negatives of buying or selling a contaminated property. A major concern to property owners is the ability to eventually sell their land, which is a process that is highly complicated by the presence of subsurface contamination. The current property owner would likely not be able to sell the property due to the potential health and environmental risks or may be held responsible for the remediation of the property after the ownership transition. As a result, property owners looking to sell their contaminated land want fast and effective solutions to ensure that the property is fully remediated as transaction opportunities arise.
The source of subsurface contamination often resides beneath existing facilities on the property where it is not feasible for vertical remediation wells to gain appropriate access. The installation and utilization of horizontal remediation wells (HRWs) offer direct access to the plume’s source and ensure a rapid remediation process, which combines to raise property value and eliminate the fear of contamination responsibility.
#### HRWs overcome difficulties in selling contaminated properties
Horizontal remediation wells are frequently utilized to overcome the difficulties of selling contaminated properties. The use of vertical wells falls short with each additional physical obstacle that the property contains. This includes existing facilities at the surface and buried utilities in the subsurface. Horizontal remediation wells provide solutions to overcome the difficulties that vertical wells face. One horizontal remediation well can provide significantly more screen access to the contamination plume, effectively replacing multiple vertical wells in the remediation of contaminated land. More importantly, the source of the contamination plume can be accessed and remediated directly, which prevents additional contamination from evolving in the future. By providing access to the source of the contamination and an increased radius of influence to the plume as a whole, horizontal remediation wells provide a significantly more rapid contaminant cleanup to ensure the property is prepared to sell.
#### **Case Study:** HRWs assist in multi-billion dollar acquisition
Directional Technologies, Inc. (DTI) was directly involved in the remediation of a major United States company property, which assisted in the company’s record-breaking multi-billion-dollar acquisition from an international buyer. Subsurface soil and groundwater contamination existed beneath an existing concrete basin slab bound by railroad tracks to the north and south. Since traditional vertical methods could not provide the necessary access to source area contaminants, DTI worked closely with the environmental consultant and client to develop a horizontal air sparge well network that would effectively reduce contamination within the target zones. DTI worked with the client to save additional costs by utilizing a specially calibrated walk-over location system to track the drill bit through the solid concrete during installation. As a result, six horizontal air sparge wells were installed at the site, ultimately assisting with the enhanced remediation of contamination that otherwise could not have been accessed through vertical technologies. Due to the proven success of the horizontal remedial system, the company was purchased in a multi-billion dollar acquisition not even two years after the installation and operation of the horizontal wells.
#### **Results:**
Directional Technologies successfully installed the six horizontal AS wells despite the physical challenges at the site. Through collaboration with the environmental consultant, DTI was able to help the client meet their remedial needs, which led to the enhanced remediation of limited-access contamination. Simultaneously, the horizontal remediation wells’ results ultimately assisted in an acquisition worth billions of dollars.
How can the advantages offered by decades of technological advancement in the field of horizontal wells benefit your project?  Call our horizontal remediation well experts at 1-877-788-4479 to discuss your current project needs.
Written By: Elliott Andelman, Professional Geologist