PCB Remediation in Louisiana

A landfill in Louisiana discovered PCBs in their 1-mile long discharge ditch. It was first proposed to perform sampling under the TSCA program along the length of the ditch and then remove and replace all contaminated soils. However, TSCA sampling is performed on a 10-foot grid, and along a 1-mile ditch spanning its width, sampling, excavation, and disposal costs can add up to millions of dollars.

Leppert Associates proposed an alternate solution of excavating a new ditch adjacent to the impacted one and using the excavated soil to fill in the impacted ditch. The soil used to fill in the old ditch acted as a TSCA-grade cap that prevents exposure or migration of the PCBs. By realigning the ditch, only the most impacted areas along the ditch would have to be sampled and excavated, while the remainder of the ditch could be capped without further sampling.

Though the client was skeptical at first, the alternative of realigning the ditch was ultimately selected. In the end, it worked wonderfully and the client saved over one million dollars in costs. The regulators were also pleased by the responsiveness of our client to the contamination in their water conveyance.