Project Highlights

ACEC/GA Engineering Excellence Award

S&ME, Inc. (S&ME) provided environmental corrective action services in Sylvester, Georgia at a service station formerly known as Buddy’s Fina. The project for Woolard Oil Company, Inc. (Woolard Oil) is intended to meet site remediation goals required by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division’s Underground Storage Tank Management Program (EPD/USTMP). Contamination at the site was caused by a gasoline release from an underground storage tank previously located there. S&ME was contracted to remove free-phase product and reduce the levels of petroleum hydrocarbon constituents in the site’s groundwater. Such hydrocarbons are typically termed chemicals of concern (CoC). Of significant concern was the building on the adjacent property downgradient from the site which formerly served as a United States Post Office (Post Office).

This structure is registered with the National Park Service as a National Historical Landmark. The free-phase product plume had migrated off-site and had impacted the basement of this historic building, rendering it unfit for human occupancy due to vapors from the release. Another concern was a City of Sylvester drinking water well located approximately 600 feet downgradient of the site.

Specific S&ME services included preparation of a site-specific Corrective Action Plan and an engineering Report for the EPD/USTMP’s approval. Foregoing typical, costly approaches, S&ME’s innovative design used two dual phase extraction (DPE) systems, placing the vacuum extraction motor, manifold for the extraction wells, liquid/gas-phase separator, oil/water separator and air tripping tank in self-contained “sound proof” structures. We designed both systems to achieve full removal of the free product plume and reduce the CoCs dissolved in the groundwater to site-specific target levels by effectively de-watering the site. Our cost-effective, timesaving design also reduced noise generated by the systems which were located in the heart of downtown Sylvester

When the DPE systems were activated, the free-product plume covered an area of 230 feet by 90 feet. Free product has not been detected since February 2000. The highest benzene concentration at the site as of May 2002 is well within acceptable limits, fully meeting client expectations. The NFA was granted in a letter from the Georgia EPD/USTMP on June 29, 2004.