Theme: 03. Green and Sustainable Remediation

Topic Area: 3b. GSR Metrics and Sustainable Remediation Assessment Tools

Formatted Title:

A Step-by-Step Approach to Decarbonizing Remedial Action through Performance-Based Remedial Design

Background/Objectives:

The cleanup of large remediation sites is an energy intensive and lengthy process that is associated with a significant release of greenhouse gas (GHG) and air toxics emissions. With the recent focus on carbon reduction to support regional and national climate action planning, use of remediation-specific emissions estimating tools like SiteWise™ and Spreadsheets for Environmental Footprint Analysis (SEFA) are being revisited to support this effort. However, design specifications remain lacking when it comes to including strong, binding language regarding monitoring and minimizing the GHG and air toxics emissions footprint of remedial action.

Design teams can be hesitant to include emissions targets in specifications because of:

Concern that including emissions targets will prevent achievement of other performance metrics included in the remedial design having to do with contaminant removal
Concern that requiring monitoring of emissions will be too burdensome for the remedial action contractor who may not be familiar with tools like SiteWise™ and SEFA
Concern that including strict requirements for limiting emissions will make the project “unbiddable”, especially when the remedial design calls for technologies with a high bar for entry into the market (e.g., in situ thermal remediation)
Concern that remedial action contractors will manipulate their data to show reduction of emissions without any real reduction in energy use

Approach/Activities:

This presentation reviews three examples of energy intensive remedial actions (in situ thermal remediation, large-scale sediment remediation projects, and long-term groundwater pump and treat [P&T]) and discusses a step-by-step approach to incorporate performance metrics into design specifications that will result in a real GHG emissions and air toxics reduction for the project.

Results/Lessons Learned:

To address design team and stakeholder concerns pertaining to GHG emission reduction performance based criteria, the following general step-by-step approach was established:

Step 1: Baseline GHG and Air Toxics Emissions Using Available Tools (SiteWise™, SEFA, MOVES)
Step 2: Understand Overarching Climate Action and Environmental Justice Goals for Stakeholders and Regulatory Agency
Step 3: Create Simplified Tool for Contractor to Calculate Emissions from Major Sources
Step 4: Suggest Methods for GHG and Air Toxics Emission Reduction in Design Specifications
Step 5: Provide Expected Costs and Cost Savings of GHG Emissions Reduction Initiatives
Step 6: Set Informed Performance Metrics in Design Specifications
Step 7: Support Stakeholders and Regulatory Agency During Bidding

The aforementioned steps create a clear cut method to incorporate meaningful GHG and Air Toxics emissions reduction performance metrics into the remedial design while alleviating any concerns regarding creating a fair and biddable process. As noted above, the presentation will include application of this step-wise approach for in situ thermal remediation, large-scale sediment remediation projects, and long-term P&T. The presentation will also review best practices for creating tools that result in comprehensive, consistent, and accurate GHG emissions estimates during bidding.

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Melissa Harclerode