LOTS OF FREE PHASE DNAPLS ON CHEMTURA'S ELMIRA SITE

Since last Monday's posting regarding DNAPL chemicals (4 of them) published in Chemtura's monthly Progress Reports I've been doing some more digging. Specifically I'm looking for groundwater results for these chemicals in the former operating pond area. This area is in Chemtura's south-west corner alongside the Canagagigue Creek and is known as RPW5, 6, 7, & 8. The RPW stands for Retention Pond West.

So far I've been focusing on Mercaptobenzothiazole (MBT) and the concentrations are basically awful in RPW 6 & 7 from 1994 through to 2004. That's as far as I've gotten however that time period encompasses both before and after the startup (1997) and operation of the Upper Aquifer Containmant and Treatment System (UACTS). What is becoming clearer and clearer is that Chemtura's pretense that they don't have free phase DNAPL on their site is beyond the pale. In regards to RPW8 it is still being used as a storm retention pond and hence there are no monitoring wells within it. At some point I will be examining the wells just a few metres away for DNAPL chemicals. Also I've just figured out that some of the UACTS pumping wells are actually within the borders of the retention ponds. As a generalization I'm finding their concentrations of MBT within RPW6 & 7, while incredibly high, are still significantly lower than other monitoring wells within RPW6 & 7. This will require further study on my part.