TOLUENE REMEDIATION AT MILL
An Engineering Excellence Award-Winning Project

S&ME provided environmental design and remediation services for clean-up of a major release of toluene, a flammable solvent used in manufacturing adhesive tape. A large mass of toluene was "floating" on the groundwater table about 30 feet below the ground surface. Additional toluene had adsorbed to soil above and below the water table and dissolved in the groundwater over a one-acre area.

Prior to S&ME’s involvement, another consultant had installed a shallow well system to recover and treat toluene. S&ME’s evaluation found the toluene was not being effectively recovered and had actually spread during two years of operation. S&ME then developed an innovative replacement remediation system using new technologies, soil vapor extraction and air sparging.

S&ME’s engineering design, and the firm’s ability to use the client's existing toluene recovery/recycling system for treatment of vapors from the surface led to the success of this award-winning project.

"We sincerely appreciate S&ME’s excellent work at this site… all the results to date clearly show its effectiveness."

—Facility Manager