Water Quality

Map of the NAWC In Situ Test Facility. Image credit: courtesy of Allen Shapiro, USGS Image Gallery

The Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) was a U.S. Navy jet engine testing facility for military aircraft from the mid-1950’s until the late 1990’s. Activities at the facility have caused tricholoethlylene (TCE), jet fuel, and other chemicals to leak into the subsurface which is a fractured-rock aquifer. A project within the USGS toxic substances hydrology program is ongoing at this site:

Chlorinated Solvents in Fractured Sedimentary Rock - Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) Research Site, West Trenton, NJ

Research is underway to evaluate Pump-and-Treat, monitored Natural Attenuation, and Enhanced Bioaugmentation in the In situ test facility at the NAWC site, which is an area within the NAWC site with historically high TCE concentrations in bedrock boreholes.

The Voytek Microbiology lab has been monitoring microbial community structure before and during bioaugmentation. We characterized the microbial community in the transect from 36BR to 15BR (and including 73BR, 71BR and 70BR) at the NAWC In Situ Test Facility at 4 time points before a bioaugmentation experiment adding KB1 (dechlorinating consortium from Geosyntec) and EOS electron donor, and have been monitoring the same microbial populations since this bioaugmentation experiment began. This served to help evaluate the natural community structure and potential for biodegradation, and to provide a baseline in order to monitor progress of the bioaugmentation experiment. Groundwater samples were taken at 4 times between March and August 2008. The bioaugmentation experiment began Oct 15, 2008, and groundwater samples were taken several times in October, and again Nov 2008, and Dec 2008 and February 2009. Monitoring is ongoing.

Photograph of the NAWC In Situ Test Facility. Image credit: courtesy of Allen Shapiro, USGS

Microorganisms capable of dechlorinating are present at some sites within the In situ Test Facility pre-bioaugmentation, but not at concentrations necessary for effective TCE degradation. Post bioaugmentation, the effect of bioaugmentation can be seen by several order of magnitude increases of dechlorinators at the injection site and other sites within the In Situ Test Facility.

For more information contact Julie Kirshtein, Voytek Microbiology.

See also Bioremediation: Chlorinated Compounds >>

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