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The Development and Implementation of a Remedial Investigation Work Plan and Data Management System
Author(s) -
Olson Clifford M.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
groundwater monitoring and remediation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.677
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1745-6592
pISSN - 1069-3629
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-6592.1991.tb00376.x
Subject(s) - consistency (knowledge bases) , remedial education , sample (material) , plan (archaeology) , work (physics) , operations research , sampling (signal processing) , computer science , operations management , variable (mathematics) , environmental science , transport engineering , engineering , mathematics , geography , filter (signal processing) , mechanical engineering , chemistry , mathematics education , archaeology , chromatography , artificial intelligence , computer vision , mathematical analysis
The Pompton Lakes Works is a 580‐acre industrial facility in northern New Jersey that has manufactured explosives for more than 100 years. Waste from these operations was disposed of on‐site and a remedial investigation (RI) was initiated to determine the extent of contamination. A history of waste disposal, completed in 1989, identified 119 potential waste sites that vary in size from point sources to entire manufacturing operations of more than 40 acres. Before RI operations began, three issues had to be addressed. First is the length of the investigation and the need for consistency between the first and the last site investigated, second is the need to eliminate the investigative “stop and go” effects (delays for analysis, drillers, etc.) on the RI operations, and third is to report, in a useful manner, the massive amounts of RI data. The solution to these issues involved the use of a sophisticated database management system developed concurrently with the RI work plan (RIWP) and designed around the RI goals. The RIWP addresses the first issue of consistency with two components, sample rules, and phased sampling. The sample rules dictate the analytes and the sample location (depending on previous results and on the phase). Phased sampling allows for incremental increases in work (depending on previous results) and is divided into two phases, exploratory that confirms the presence of contamination and characterization, with a variable number of rounds, that defines contaminant extent. These components are simple, easily applied, yet infinitely flexible to address changing conditions, and readily adapted to database management. The database management system is the key to controlling a large RI; it eliminates the investigative “stop and go” and the problems associated with massive amounts of data. The system incorporates all investigative information (including digitized maps) into sample plans, chain‐of‐custodies, and reports. The reports may be either concurrent with RI work (i.e., a specific phase or round) or a summary report of the completed investigation at a waste site. The system allows a number of waste sites to be investigated simultaneously so that one person can manage a complex RI with a minimum of personnel, a maximum number of sites (in different phases or rounds), and issue timely reports that are crisp, concise, and informative. Combining development of the RIWP with the database management system not only addressed the investigative aspects but also the operational and the reporting aspects too.