Projects

NWIRP consists of over 40 acres of land area and was used for the design, fabrication, and testing of prototype weapons beginning in the early 1950’s. CDW was retained by the EPA to determine the extent to which Volatile Organic Compounds were threatening (or had threatened) the local water supply. Our team provided Remedial Investigation and Feasibility Study design support, as well as technical reviews of work plans prepared by others, technical memorandums, and monitoring reports for three sites.

CDW’s expertise in several remedial technologies to address chlorinated VOCs, including their real-life limitations, helped EPA make a stronger case for compelling the Navy to consider other, more feasible remediation.

Our experts evaluated a comprehensive Monitored Natural Attenuation Assessment and determined that, while there was evidence that some microbiological activity had occurred at the site, the statistical and graphical analyses presented did not support the case for biologically mediated natural attenuation. Further, the discussion of geochemical indicator lines of evidence was insufficient to represent actual site conditions. CDW provided combined expertise in statistical analysis and hydrogeology to conclude that the Navy had not demonstrated through accepted methods that monitored natural attenuation was occurring. We therefore recommended better delineation and monitoring of the plume, as well as better use of the geochemical indicators (the strongest line of evidence) to refine the model.