Article: Soil-Gas Contamination & Entry of Volatile Organic Compounds Into
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•f; ISSN 1047-3289 J. Air Waste Manage. Assoc. 42: 277-283 SFUND RECORDS CTR 1751-00087 Soil-Gas Contamination and Entry of Volatile Organic Compounds into a House Near a Landfill SFUND RECORDS CTR 88111859 Alfred T. Hodgson, Karina Garbesi, Richard G. Sextro, and Joan M. Daisey Energy and Environment Division Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory University of California Berkeley, California Toxic volatile organic compounds (VOC) are commonly found In landfills, Including landfills were sampled for total orgeuiic those accepting only municipal waste. These VOC can migrate away from the site gases measured as methane. Sixty- through the soil and result In contaminated off-site soil gas. This contaminated soil gas four percent of the landfills had perim eter concentrations of total organic can enter houses built near landfills and Is a potential source of human exposure to VOC. gases in excess of 5 ppmv, and 20 This study Investigated soll-gas contamination and the mechanisms of entry of VOC percent had concentrations in excess into a house with a basement sited adjacent to a municipal landfiil. The VOC were of five percent, the standard which Identified and quantified in the soil gas and In Indoor and outdoor air. Pressure coupling officisdly defines offsite migration. between the basement and the surrounding soli was measured. Using soll-gas tracers, If houses are situated in the near vicinity of a site with subsurface gas the pressure-driven advective entry of soli gas was quantified as a function of basement migration, it is possible under some depressurization. From the measurements, estimates were made for the diffusive and circumstances for soil-gas conteuni- advective entry rates of VOC Into the house. nants to enter the houses through A comparison of the chlorinated hydrocart>ons found In soli gas at the site and In the their substructures. Such entry will landfiii suggests that the landfill Is the source of the halogenated compounds In the result in elevated indoor concentra tions of the contaminants. vIclnKy of the house. At the conditions of the study, the diffusive and advective entry Evidence for the entry of landfill rates of VOC from soli Into the basement were estimated to be low and of similar contaminants into houses is provided magnitude. Advective entry of soli gas into the house was limited by the low soil air by Wood and Porter who detected permeability and the low beiow-grade leakage area of the basement. For this reason, methane at concentrations approach high Indoor concentrations due to the intrusion of VOC from soil gas are unlikely at this ing one percent in enclosed spaces of houses located near a landfill following house, even under conditions that would produce relatively large underpressures In the an incident of gas migration.^ In one basement. house 180 m from the lemdfill, chlori nated hydrocarbons, presumably origi Landfills, including municipsd facili detected in landfill gas in approxi nating from the landfill, were detected ties designated to accept only nonhaz- mately 70 percent of the 288 sites at the entry point for soil gas. ardous waste, have been found to con tested. ^ These VOC can migrate from The entry of soil-gas contaminants tain elevated concentrations of toxic the landfill site through the subsur into houses has been studied in rela volatile organic compounds (VOC). In face by advective transport in the gas tion to the issue of indoor radon. These a recent study of predominantly munic and aqueous phases or by diffusion. studies have demonstrated that radon ipal landfills mandated by the Califor The CARB study provides direct evi enters houses by diffusion and by ad nia Air Resources Board (CARB), one dence for the subsurface transport of vective transport from the surround or more of the ten toxic VOC selected gaseous contaminants away from land ing soil. In single-family residences as indicators of hazardous waste were fill sites. ^ Perimeter gas wells at 288 with elevated indoor concentrations, the dominant entry mechanism is the advective flow of radon-bearing soil gas into the buildings.^"^ The pressure differential which drives this flow is Implications caused by indoor-outdoor thermal dif ferences, wind loading on the building Since gas in landfills is commonly contaminated with toxic VOC and ofT-site shell and soil, and unbalanced ventila migration of landfill gas through the subsurface is also common, there may be tion systems.2'^'^ In extreme weather locations in the vicinity of landfills in which populations are being exposed to conditions, the depressurization of elevated levels of VOC in their homes. For the house in this study, the entry rate building substructures can approach of VOC was low due to the low soil-air permeability and the low below-grade -10 Pa.^ The resulting advective en leakage area of the btisement. However, in some circumstances, a large percentage try of soil gas can constitute a signifi of the ventilation air for a house may derive from the advective entry of soil gas. It is possible that locations with significant potential for elevated indoor exposures cant portion of the toted amount of air via this pathway may be identified from data on off-site migration of contami infiltrating into a house if the building nants, soil type and housing characteristics. substructure is sufficiently leaky and Copyrifiht 1992—Air & Waate Manrtfiement Association March 1992 Volume 42, No. 3 277 -.1 the soil is suthcientiy permeaoie to at iLs ciobebt pOiiiL. i tic lana UCL.^^JCI- *' soil-air flow.^ the berm and the house is flat. At the 4 and 11m from the west basement In this study, the mechanisms in time of the study, the region of the wall. Soil-air permeabilities were mea volved in the entry of VOC from soil landfill nearest the house was full and sured using 30 probes installed in the into a single-family residence -mth a capped with soil. A plan view of the soil around the house at distances of basement were investigated using tech study site is shown in Figure 1. 0.5 to 7 m from the basement wall and niques similar to those employed in The house is a single-story structure at depths of 1.5 and 3 m. The pVobes the radon studies cited above. The built over a basement and a garage. and the in-situ measurement of perme house was located in an area of contam The basement floor is ~2.5 m below ability have previously been described.'' inated soil adjacent to a municipal grade. The foundation and beisement The probes were also used to measure landfill. Volatile organic compounds of the house were constructed by exca pressure coupling between the soil and were identified and quantified in in vating the soil, pouring a cement slab the house and to collect seunples of soil door and outdoor air and in the soil gas with an integral footing, emd building gas for anedysis of VOC and tracer surrounding the house. Pressure cou up a wall of cement blocks on top of the gases. Probe locations are shown in pling between the basement and the slab. The cavities in the blocks were Figure 1. surrounding soil was measured to de back-filled with cement. The exterior The analysis of peirticle-size distribu termine the region of influence of the of the wall was coated with an asphalt tion, by a standard sieving and sedi house on the soil and to elucidate the sealant, and the interior of the wall mentation technique, revealed a range entry pathway for soil gas. Using soil- was painted, but otherwise bare. The of U.S. Department of Agriculture soil g£is tracers, the pressure-driven entry floor areas of the first floor and the t3T)es from loamy sand to silt loam.'-^ of soil gas was quantified by experimen basement are 183 and 103 m^, respec Horizontal layering was evident in the tally depressurizing the basement. tively. The respective volumes are 430 two profiles farthest from the house. From the field measurements, esti and 290 m^. The effective leakage area Above 2.4 m, the layers alternated mates were made for the diffusive and of the entire house, as measured by between loamy sand and seuidy loam, advective entry rates of VOC into the the technique of Sherman and Grim which has more fine particles. Be house at normal operating conditions. srud, is 0.125 m^, indicating that the tween a depth of 2.4 to 2.8 m, the soil In a previous report, the results of a structure is relatively tight. For sev was silt loam, which is predominantly numerical model were compared with eral months prior to the study and silt. The profile 0.8 m from the house the measurements of pressure cou throughout the study, the house was was relatively uniform loeuny sand, pling and the pressure-driven entry of unfurnished and unoccupied. probably because this region was exca soil-gas under experimental condi vated and refilled during construction. tions. 1° Investigations were conducted from late July through early November Moisture content, determined by 1987. Data on local wind speed and weighing before and after oven drying, was two to four percent by weight over Experimental direction, precipitation, and indoor and outdoor temperatures were continu a depth of 0.5 to 2 m and increased to The study was conducted at a single- ously collected throughout this period. approximately 12 percent in the sUt- family residence sited adjactent to the Precipitation w£is only 1.5 cm. loam layer. The mean in-situ soil air Geer Road Landfill in Stanislaus The soil surrounding the house was permeability at a depth of 1.5 m was County, Cedifornia.