Sustainable Remediation Considerations for Treatment of 1,4‐Dioxane in Groundwater

Abstract

1,4‐Dioxane remediation is challenging due to its physiochemical properties and low target treatment levels. As such, applications of traditional remediation technologies have proven ineffective. There are a number of promising remediation technologies that could potentially be scaled for successful application to groundwater restoration. Sustainable remediation is an important consideration in the evaluation of remediation technologies. It is critically important to consider sustainability when new technologies are being applied or new contaminants are being treated with traditional technologies. There are a number of social, economic, and environmental drivers that should be considered when implementing 1,4‐dioxane treatment technologies. This includes evaluating sustainability externalities by considering the cradle‐to‐grave impacts of the chemicals, energy, processes, transportation, and materials used in groundwater treatment. It is not possible to rate technologies as more or less sustainable because each application is context specific. However, by including sustainability thinking into technology evaluations and implementation plans, decisions makers can be more informed and the results of remediation are likely to be more effective and beneficial. There are a number sustainable remediation frameworks, guidance documents, footprint assessment tools, life cycle assessment tools, and best management practices that can be utilized for these purposes. This paper includes an overview describing the importance of sustainability in technology selection, identifies sustainability impacts related to technologies that can be used to treat 1,4‐dioxane, provides an approximating approach to assess sustainability impacts, and summarizes potential sustainability impacts related to promising treatment technologies. ©2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Use of an automated respirometer for in situ chemical oxidation (ISCO) activator type and concentration selection

“…Variations in hydrogeology and geochemistry of contaminated sites, and the chemistry and concentration of contaminants are factors to consider (Tsitonaki et al 2010;Bennedsen 2014;Bardos et al 2016). As a result, the evaluation of oxidiser type and quantity of activator should lead to more successful and sustainable practices (Favara et al 2016;Andrade et al 2017).…”

Novel insights into the mode of action of 1,4-dioxane using a systems screening approach

“…Its low organic phase and water partition coefficient makes it highly miscible in water, unlikely to retard or adsorb to a solid phase, and to have a low tendency to volatilize (Cashman et al, 2019). These properties are unfavorable for conventional treatment strategies (Favara et al, 2016;Stepien et al, 2014). Therefore, 1,4-DX can leach into water systems and accumulate in groundwater sites.…”

Management of large dilute plumes of chloroethenes and 1,4‐dioxane via monitored natural attenuation (MNA) and MNA augmentation

“…Dioxane can be especially difficult to treat in large dilute plumes because it is most often addressed with methods that are most effective on higher concentrations and are impractical for large plumes, such as advanced chemical oxidation processes (AOP) and specialized synthetic sorbents (Favara et al, 2016) or granular activated carbon (GAC) (Broughton et al, 2019). There is some evidence that breakdown or removal from shallow subsurface dioxane plumes might be enhanced by plants (Aitchison et al, 2000;DiGuiseppi et al, 2016;Ferro et al, 2013;ITRC, 2020b).…”