For almost 50 years, facility operations at a Collierville, Tennessee, manufacturing site contaminated groundwater, surface water and soil. With the addition of the site to the National Priorities List (NPL) in 2005, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) needed a trusted partner to clean up the site in order to protect people and the environment from contamination. As one of the three original Superfund contractors since the Superfund Act’s inception in 1982, Black & Veatch took the lead in helping the EPA meet its goals.
Investigation and Remediation
To complete the remedial investigation for the inactive manufacturing facility, Black & Veatch provided services such as Human Health and Ecological Risk Assessment, a feasibility study, and environmental sampling leading to a Record of Decision (ROD). The Human Health and Ecological Risk Assessments determined that facility activities resulted in contamination of soils with metals, including chromium and hexavalent chromium.
In addition to soil contamination, groundwater and surface water were contaminated with hexavalent chromium, the main contaminant of concern at the site. It posed a threat to the sole source of drinking water in the area. In order to eliminate this threat, Black & Veatch constructed and implemented a groundwater treatment system. As of 2017, over 10 million gallons of contaminated water has been remediated, returning it to the environment as clean water. The groundwater remediation system continues to remediate contaminated groundwater at a rate of 100 gallons per minute.
