Former Furniture Manufacturing Facility

Brooklyn, New York

Roux Associates has completed the investigation and is currently performing the remediation of chlorinated solvents in soil and groundwater at a shipping facility operated by a national shipping company. The contamination is attributable to former furniture manufacturing operations at the site. The investigation and remediation is being conducted pursuant to the Voluntary Cleanup Program (VCP) under the jurisdiction of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) Region 2.

Based upon the results of an investigation, Roux Associates developed a risk-based remedial approach that called for remediation of "hot spot" source area soils, and mass-reduction of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in groundwater. The approach specifically avoided strict numerical remedial goals that are typically applied by NYSDEC for remediation of groundwater. Roux Associates developed the necessary data to show that ambient groundwater quality in the site vicinity had been degraded due to numerous industrial sources of contamination, and that there were no potential uses of groundwater to warrant cleanup to drinking water standards. As a result, the focus of remediation was on reducing the mass of VOCs in on-site groundwater to a level where natural attenuation will be effective in remediation of residual, dissolved VOCs in groundwater (both on-site and off-site).

Roux Associates successfully negotiated this alternative cleanup approach for the site and incorporated all of the investigation and risk assessment results, along with strategy considerations, into a Remedial Action Work Plan for submittal to the NYSDEC and New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH). To address the contamination in the source area, Roux Associates performed a remedial pilot test, design and construction and is currently operating a full-scale soil vapor extraction and air sparge remedial system at the site. Roux Associates also provided a Performance and Design Modification Plan (PADMP) to detail the mechanism for measuring, tracking and modifying the remedial process for the source area. The PADMP outlined the cleanup goals, procedures for determining whether cleanup objectives were met and the process for source area remedial system permanent shutdown.