Technology Innovation and Field Services Division (TIFSD) staff will highlight new changes to the CLU-IN website and internet seminar platform during this one hour event. Participants will help beta-test the new interface for CLU-INs free live, internet seminars while learning about its expanded features. In addition, this seminar will provide a unique sneak peak to the new CLU-IN website expected to go live in February 2009. TIFSD staff will also solicit comments and suggestions for future improvements to CLU-IN.

This national webcast is an opportunity for potential applicants for the CARE cooperative agreement grant program to learn more about the program and to ask questions about the CARE Request for Proposals issued in December 2008.

Description: This seminar provides a summary of a recently-compiled document on Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on chlorinated solvent site management. The FAQ document addresses 25 key questions, providing a concise overview of current knowledge regarding management of subsurface chlorinated solvent releases. The document is intended to help state regulators, federal regulators, consultants, DoD staff and community members make better site management decisions. ESTCP hopes the document contributes to better use of resources, more effective remediation and risk management, and more productive cooperation between the parties involved in site cleanups.
The FAQ document is intended to be a concise overview, while the more extensive companion document, "Guide for Selecting Remedies for Subsurface Releases of Chlorinated Solvents", is planned for release in 2009.

Perchlorate contamination exists in water and soil, and occurs widely throughout the United States. Public awareness and concern regarding perchlorate has increased in recent years. Perchlorate occurrence in drinking water and food supplies is a human health concern because it can interfere with iodide uptake by the thyroid gland and result in decreased thyroid hormone production. The ITRC Perchlorate Team was formed in 2004 to address technical issues associated with perchlorate. Many technologies are available to remediate perchlorate contamination, but only a few are commonly used.

This training introduces state regulators, environmental consultants, site owners, and community stakeholders to Remediation Technologies for Perchlorate Contamination in Water and Soil (PERC-2, 2008), created by ITRC's Perchlorate Team to assist reviewers in assessing the adequacy of perchlorate remediation projects. This course gives the student a background in the available remediation technologies to treat perchlorate contamination, discusses emerging technologies, and presents case studies of applications.

The first document produced by the ITRC Perchlorate Team, Perchlorate: Overview of Issues, Status, and Remedial Options (PERC-1, 2005) and associated Internet-based training provide regulators and other stakeholders a basic overview of a broad spectrum of information regarding perchlorate sources, sampling and analysis techniques, a discussion of risk issues, risk management strategies and regulatory status, and included a brief summary of remediation technologies. It is recommended that the registrant review the Perchlorate: Overview of Issues, Status, and Remedial Options (PERC-1, 2005) document and associated Internet-based training archive (available from http://www.itrcweb.org/ibt.asp#Perchlorate_CurrentInfo) for more information.

Treatment of dissolved-phase chlorinated ethenes in groundwater using in situ bioremediation (ISB) is an established technology; however, its use for DNAPL source zones is an emerging application. This training course supports the ITRC Technical and Regulatory Guidance document In Situ Bioremediation of Chlorinated Ethene: DNAPL Source Zones (BioDNAPL-3, 2008). This document provides the regulatory community, stakeholders, and practitioners with the general steps practitioners and regulators can use to objectively assess, monitor, and optimize ISB treatment of DNAPL source zones. The objective is to provide adequate technology background for the user to understand the general and key aspects of ISB for treatment of chlorinated ethene DNAPL source zones. It is not intended to be a step-by-step instruction manual for remedial design, but describes technology-specific considerations for application of ISB of DNAPL source zones.

For this training and guidance document, a DNAPL source zone includes the zone that encompasses the entire subsurface volume in which DNAPL is present either at residual saturation or as "pools" that accumulate above confining units. The DNAPL source zone includes regions that have come into contact with DNAPL and may be storing contaminant mass as a result of diffusion of DNAPL into the soil matrix. Even though DNAPLs may be present in both the unsaturated and saturated zones, the discussion of ISB of DNAPL source zones in this training and guidance document focuses on treatment of DNAPL source zones within the saturated zone.

Two goals of any DNAPL source treatment technology are to 1) reduce the mass of contaminants within the source area and 2) prevent migration of contaminants above unacceptable levels. The enhanced ISB technology reduces source mass and controls flux through the enhanced dissolution and desorption of DNAPL constituents into the aqueous phase, and subsequent microbially mediated degradation processes. Although enhanced ISB of DNAPL source zones has been demonstrated in the field at a few chlorinated solvent sites, expectations for rapid depletion of the source zone must be realistic. This training and guidance provide detailed requirements necessary to support the realistic determination of goals for ISB of a DNAPL source zone.

Many sites with chlorinated organic contamination in groundwater have gone through extensive remedial evaluations and actions. After years of operating high energy processes, their effectiveness has begun to diminish without remedial objectives being met. Other effective remedial alternatives can be applied; however, there are difficulties transitioning these sites from these high energy systems to other low energy remedial alternatives and eventually to Monitored Natural Attenuation (MNA).

This training on the ITRC Technical and Regulatory Guidance for Enhanced Attenuation: Chlorinated Organics (EACO-1, 2008) describes the transition (the bridge) between aggressive remedial actions and MNA and vise versa. Enhanced attenuation (EA) is the application of technologies that minimize energy input and are sustainable in order to reduce contaminant loading and/or increase the attenuation capacity of a contaminated plume to progress sites towards established remedial objectives. Contaminant loading and attenuation capacity are fundamental to sound decisions for remediation of groundwater contamination. This training explains how a decision framework which, when followed, allows for a smooth transition between more aggressive remedial technologies to sustainable remedial alternatives and eventually to Monitored Natural Attenuation. This training will demonstrate how this decision framework allows regulators and practitioners to integrate Enhanced Attenuation into the remedial decision process.

As our experience and knowledge grows around the implementation of MNA, the EA process will be considered an important management tool for optimizing site remedies and moving sites to final completion. This approach is consistent with the current regulatory environment and can be accommodated within a broad range of regulatory programs such as CERCLA and State dry cleaner regulations. This new framework and decision process will accelerate the environmental clean-up progress on a national scale and reduce overall costs, while still providing protection to human health and the environment.

For reference during the training class, participants should download and print a copy of the decision flow chart, Figure 2-1 on page 10 of the ITRC Technical and Regulatory Guidance for Enhanced Attenuation: Chlorinated Organics (EACO-1, 2008) and available as a 1-page PDF at http://www.cluin.org/conf/itrc/eaco/ITRC-EACO-DecisionFlowchart.pdf.

Since 1988, more than 6,100 municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills have closed (see http://www.epa.gov/msw/pubs/mswchar05.pdf). Determining when the regulatory post-closure care (PCC) period can be ended for a permitted solid waste disposal facility is one of the greatest challenges facing the solid waste industry in recent times. Using a performance-based process, conducted on a site-specific basis, to determine if a closed landfill poses a threat to human health and the environment provides information necessary to defensibly conclude that the closed landfill does not pose a threat and allows termination of the regulatory post-closure care period.

This training, based on ITRC's Technical and Regulatory Guidance: Evaluating, Optimizing, or Ending Post-Closure Care at Municipal Solid Waste Landfills Based on Site-Specific Data Evaluations (ALT-4, 2006), describes a method to evaluate the performance of Post Closure Care at a landfill and determine when leachate recovery, landfill gas management, groundwater monitoring, and cap maintenance can be reduced or even ended based on threats (to human health and the environment) posed by the closed landfill. The training and document describe "custodial care" as those requirements the property owner must follow after post closure care has been ended. They include de minimus site management and care activities including meeting end-use obligations, maintaining institutional control, controlling access, satisfying local ordinances, and fulfilling other applicable regulations and are included as deed restrictions or other enforceable means which follow all land transfers. The training and document focus on Post Closure Care of municipal solid waste landfills. However, Post Closure Care is relevant to closed sites and facilities managed in accordance with a variety of regulatory programs including RCRA, CERCLA, Solid Waste, Brownfields, Voluntary Cleanup, mined land reclamation, and others. Solid waste professionals and other landfill decision makers (e.g. owners; operators; consultants; Federal, state and local government; and the public) should attend this training.