Final Work Plan of the In-Situ Pcb Bioavailability
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In-Situ PCB Bioavailability Reduction in Grasse River Sediments Final Work Plan August 2006 Grasse River Study Area Massena, New York In-Situ PCB Bioavailability Reduction in Grasse River Sediments Final Work Plan Table of Contents SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................1-1 1.1 GENERAL DESCRIPTION..........................................................................................1-1 1.2 RECENT STUDIES ON ACTIVATED CARBON.......................................................1-1 1.3 APPLICABILITY TO THE LOWER GRASSE RIVER...............................................1-2 1.4 DOCUMENT ORGANIZATION..................................................................................1-4 SECTION 2 OBJECTIVES AND APPROACH.....................................................................2-1 2.1 OBJECTIVES ................................................................................................................2-1 2.2 STUDY DESIGN...........................................................................................................2-1 2.2.1 Site Selection...........................................................................................................2-2 2.2.2 Study Components...................................................................................................2-3 SECTION 3 IMPLEMENTATION .........................................................................................3-1 3.1 GENERAL .....................................................................................................................3-1 3.2 APPLICATION AND MIXING METHODS................................................................3-1 3.3 RIVER ACCESS............................................................................................................3-2 3.4 CONTAINMENT SYSTEMS........................................................................................3-3 3.5 SURVEY CONTROLS..................................................................................................3-3 SECTION 4 MONITORING PROGRAM..............................................................................4-1 4.1 OVERVIEW...................................................................................................................4-1 4.2 FIELD INVESTIGATION.............................................................................................4-2 4.2.1 Sediment Sampling (Physical and Chemical Characterization) ..............................4-2 4.2.2 Water Column Monitoring.......................................................................................4-5 4.2.3 Sediment Sampling (for Verification of Target Thickness and Adequate Mixing).4-7 4.2.4 Erosion Potential Testing.........................................................................................4-7 4.2.5 Benthic Invertebrate Community Studies................................................................4-8 4.2.6 Qualitative Aquatic Habitat Survey.........................................................................4-8 4.2.7 In-Situ PCB Uptake Studies.....................................................................................4-9 4.3 LABORATORY STUDIES.........................................................................................4-11 4.3.1 PCB Aqueous Equilibrium ....................................................................................4-11 4.3.2 PCB Desorption Rate.............................................................................................4-12 4.3.3 Ex-Situ PCB Uptake in Biota ................................................................................4-13 4.4 STATISTICAL DESIGN AND INTERPRETATION FOR THE FIELD INVESTIGATION..................................................................................................................4-13 SECTION 5 SCHEDULE..........................................................................................................5-1 SECTION 6 REFERENCES.....................................................................................................6-1 Alcoa Inc. i August 2006 In-Situ PCB Bioavailability Reduction in Grasse River Sediments Final Work Plan APPENDICES Appendix A: Journal Publications Pertaining to Activated Carbon Technology Appendix B: University of Maryland Baltimore County Standard Operating Procedures for Analytical Methods Appendix C: University of Maryland Baltimore County Method Description and Standard Operating Procedures for the In-Situ PCB Biouptake Studies with L. variegatus Appendix D: University of Maryland Baltimore County Method Description and Standard Operating Procedures for the Laboratory Studies List of Tables Table 2-1. Physical and Chemical Properties of Surface Sediments in Vicinity of Proposed Pilot Study Area Table 4-1. Monitoring Program Summary List of Figures Figure 1-1. Grasse River Study Area Figure 2-1. Proposed Area for Activated Carbon Pilot Study Figure 2-2. Proposed Layout for the Activated Carbon Pilot Study Figure 2-3. Example of Tine Injection Device Figure 2-4. Example of Roto-Tiller Device Alcoa Inc. ii August 2006 In-Situ PCB Bioavailability Reduction in Grasse River Sediments Final Work Plan Figure 2-5. Example of Leveling and Mixing Drag Figure 4-1. Sampling Locations for Sediment, Water Column and Benthic Community Monitoring Figure 4-2. Light microscopy pictures of 63-250 micron size sediment particles (left) and 75-300 micron size activated carbon particles (right) Figure 4-3. Sampling Locations for Erosion Potential Testing Figure 4-4. Design of surficial sediment and pore water exposure chamber from Burton et al. (2002) shown on the left and deployment of five replicate chambers on a rack illustrated in the figure on the right Alcoa Inc. iii August 2006 In-Situ PCB Bioavailability Reduction in Grasse River Sediments Final Work Plan SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 GENERAL DESCRIPTION This Work Plan describes a proposed pilot project to be conducted by Alcoa Inc. (Alcoa) that will evaluate a promising new technology for the remediation of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-containing sediments in the lower Grasse River, Massena, New York (Figure 1-1). The lower Grasse River is currently under a fish consumption advisory from the New York State Department of Health due to elevated PCB levels found in fish, and results of site investigation work conducted to date indicate that the major source of PCBs to the fish is from sediments in the river which have been impacted by past discharges (Alcoa, April 2001). The technology proposed for this pilot study consists of the addition of activated carbon to the upper layer of the sediment bed. Recent studies by Ghosh, Luthy and others have demonstrated that this technology is effective in reducing PCB bioaccumulation in benthic organisms, PCB release into the water column, and PCB uptake by semi-permeable membrane devices (SPMDs). Based on these results, the addition of activated carbon to sediments in the lower Grasse River has the potential to greatly reduce PCB leaching and bioavailability in the treated in-situ sediments. This, in turn, is expected to result in the reduction of PCB levels in both water column and fish of the lower Grasse River. 1.2 RECENT STUDIES ON ACTIVATED CARBON Several recent studies have demonstrated that the addition of activated carbon to in-situ sediments is effective at reducing the bioavailability of PCBs in sediments. Zimmerman et al. (2004) and Millward et al. (2005) found that amending activated carbon to marine sediments resulted in a greater than 80 percent (%) reduction in PCB bioavailability to benthic organisms. Laboratory work with sediment from the lower Grasse River has shown that adding 2.5% activated carbon (by weight) reduced PCB uptake in the freshwater clam Corbicula fluminea by 95% (Luthy, unpublished) and in the freshwater oligochaete Lumbriculus variegatus by 93% Alcoa Inc. 1-1 August 2006 In-Situ PCB Bioavailability Reduction in Grasse River Sediments Final Work Plan (Sun and Ghosh, 2005). Zimmerman et al. (2004) have demonstrated that addition of activated carbon to sediments from San Francisco Bay reduced the bioaccumulation of PCBs in Macoma clams by 69%, Leptocheirus amphipods by 72%, and Neanthes worms by 83% after a one-month period (Millward et al., 2005). Zimmerman et al. (2005) found biouptake reductions in 56-day exposure tests of up to 90 to 92% for Hunters Point sediment depending on activated carbon particle size. Zimmerman et al. (2004) also found that sediment treated with activated carbon attains equilibrium PCB concentrations 85 and 92% lower than untreated sediment in one-month and six-month contact experiments, respectively. Tests using freshwater sediments from the Grasse River, New Bedford Harbor and the Hudson River have shown 90 to 99% reductions in equilibrium aqueous PCB concentrations after addition of activated carbon (Ghosh, unpublished). In-situ bioavailability reduction using carbon amendment may be applicable at sites where bioaccumulation reduction can reduce exposure and consequent risk to acceptable levels. Stanford University and the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) are currently performing a demonstration of this novel risk-reduction approach in the field at Hunters Point in San Francisco Bay, California through funding from the Navy and the Department of Defense. This new approach to management of contaminated sediments is also being tested for freshwater sediments from four Areas of Concern