SUMMARY OF THE REMEDIATION TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPMENT FORUM
NAPL CLEANUP ALLIANCE
CONFERENCE CALL

11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
December 16, 2005

On Friday, December 16, 2005, the following members of the Non-Aqueous Phase Liquid (NAPL) Cleanup Alliance met in a conference call:

Bob Maxey, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (Alliance Co-Chair)
Don Ficklen, Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence (AFCEE)
Greg Fletcher, Suncor
Rick Greiner, ConocoPhillips Company
James Higinbotham, ExxonMobil
Harley Hopkins, American Petroleum Institute (API)
Vic Kremesec, Atlantic Richfield Co., a BP Affiliated Company
Chris Pearson, The Retec Group, Inc.
Ellen Rubin, EPA
Brian Smith, TriHydro Corporation
Dick Woodward, Terracon

Also participating in the call were Carolyn Perroni of Environmental Management Support, Inc., and Christine Hartnett of ERG.

PARTNERING WITH THE INTERSTATE TECHNOLOGY AND REGULATORY COUNCIL (ITRC)

The NAPL Cleanup Alliance has been pursuing a partnership with the ITRC for several years. The effort was initiated in 2002, at which time the ITRC was invited to attend one of the Alliance's meetings. After attending the meeting, however, the ITRC indicated that it was not interested in establishing a partnership. Carolyn Perroni said that Ali Tavelli has approached the ITRC again, noting that Tavelli has contacted Mary Yelkin (one of ITRC's contractors) to discuss the possibility of (1) coordinating training events, and (2) getting ITRC to review the Alliance's products. These discussions are currently in their infancy.

Don Ficklen, who recently joined ITRC's Bioremediation of DNAPL Team, said that he will talk to his team members about reviewing the Alliance's products. Ellen Rubin said that she thinks it is unlikely that ITRC will agree to review the Alliance's products, noting that the ITRC is already overstretched when it comes to performing reviews. She did say, however, that it would be useful to communicate more closely with ITRC, especially since some of their members might be interested in participating in the Alliance's activities. Rubin also suggested exploring the idea of writing a proposal for the ITRC to fund.

THE NEXT ALLIANCE MEETING

The next NAPL Cleanup Alliance meeting will be held on February 7–8, 2006, at the Sheraton Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas. Ficklen said that he has identified speakers to talk about NAPL cleanup projects that have been conducted at Air Force sites, such as Williams Air Force Base and the Diego Garcia site. In addition, he said, Patrick Haas has agreed to speak about innovative LNAPL recovery approaches, and Doug Downey has agreed to talk about remediation strategies for LNAPL sites. Harley Hopkins asked whether the Air Force plans to present the paper that AFCEE published on LNAPL weathering. Ficklen said that Doug Downey might be able to present that paper and he agreed to discuss that possibility with Downey.

Other topics identified as potential agenda items included:

• NAPL source zone attenuation. Hopkins said that Arizona State University (Paul Johnson in particular) has examined source zone longevity at several sites, including Williams Air Force Base. Bob Maxey asked Hopkins to invite Johnson to speak at the meeting. Vic Kremesec said that Groundwater Services, Inc. (GSI) has researched source zone attenuation at service stations; he agreed to contact someone from GSI to determine whether they are interested in speaking at the meeting.



• The Casper Refinery site. Brian Smith said that the Casper Refinery Subgroup could talk about (1) a study that is being performed to examine vapor mass loss and (2) efforts that are underway to design a NAPL attenuation cell. Perroni advised setting aside at least 1 hour for the presentation.



• The Alliance's Module 2 training. Maxey proposed setting aside 2 hours to discuss the most up-to-date version of the Module 2 training package. This will allow Alliance members time to go through the module slide by slide and provide comments.



• EPA's 20/20 goals. Maxey suggested asking his supervisor (Tom Rinehart) to provide a summary of EPA's 20/20 goals for the Corrective Action Program.



• Chevron's Los Angeles refinery. Maxey said that he is impressed by the pollution prevention techniques that are being employed at this facility, and he advised inviting someone from Chevron to speak on this topic. Greg Fletcher expressed enthusiasm for this idea.

THE ALLIANCE'S MODULE 1 TRAINING

The Module 1 training was presented at many different locations across the United States in 2005, and several sessions are already scheduled for 2006 (including one that is scheduled to take place in Austin, Texas, on February 9, 2006). Maxey (who has collaborated with Mark Lyverse, Kremesec, and Mark Adamski to deliver the training) said that attendees have responded favorably to the Module 1 training. In addition to live presentations, Module 1 was recently presented as an Internet seminar. Rubin said that the seminar was the second largest meeting ever hosted on EPA's Clu-In Web site, noting that 286 people attended and several hundred people signed up on the waiting list. Those who attended represented 35 states, as well as Australia, Brazil, Canada, and China. Maxey said that he thought the seminar was a success, although he advised lengthening the seminar to 3 hours (from 2 hours) if it is repeated in the future.

THE ALLIANCE'S MODULE 2 TRAINING

Although Hopkins distributed a draft of the "Overview Version" of Module 2 a couple of months ago, he has only received comments from one person (Kremesec) so far. Maxey said that he had recently received some comments and would forward them to Hopkins soon; Ficklen said that he plans to send Hopkins comments within the next couple of weeks.

NAPL CASE STUDIES

Rubin reminded call participants that EPA is seeking case studies on NAPL cleanup projects. Jim Higinbotham said that he is working on two or three case studies, which he expects to deliver within the next few months. Fletcher said that Retec is developing a case study for a Suncor site, noting that he expects the case study to be completed within the next week. Rick Greiner said that he is trying to develop some case studies as well.

ACTION ITEMS

• Ficklen will talk to his ITRC team members about the possibility of reviewing the Alliance’s products.



• Ficklen will remain in contact with those who have agreed to deliver presentations on behalf of the Air Force. To be specific, he will (1) obtain abstracts from all of the speakers, (2) obtain confirmation that they plan to attend, and (3) obtain additional details regarding what will be covered during their presentations. (For example, he will find out whether Doug Downey will be able to provide information on LNAPL weathering.) Ficklen will share the information he collects with Maxey and Perroni. In addition, Ficklen will talk to his supervisor to find out whether there are more Air Force–related presentations that could be included on the Alliance's meeting agenda.



• Perroni will send Alliance members logistical information about the February 2006 Alliance meeting within the next week.



• Maxey and Perroni will develop a preliminary agenda for the meeting and circulate it for review.



• Maxey will forward the comments he has received on Module 2 to Hopkins soon.



• Ficklen will send Hopkins comments on the Module 2 training within the next couple of weeks.



• Fletcher, Higinbotham, and Greiner will continue working on case studies and submit them to Rubin as soon as possible.