Development of Permeable Reactive Barriers for Chromium Residue Sites in New Jersey: Year 3 Final Report

This report is from the third year of a research program to address the development of permeable reactive barrier (PRB) technology for treating chromium-contaminated groundwater at sites located in Hudson County, New Jersey. A permeable reactive barrier (PRB) is a passive treatment zone of reactive material that degrades or immobilizes contaminants as groundwater flows through it. The contaminants in groundwater react with the reactive media where they are transformed into harmless precipitates within such a barrier. Being passive, the barrier does not require any power or maintenance for a long period of time. The application of this permeable reactive barrier requires a thorough knowledge of the reactivity of reactive media in the barriers with the specific contaminant present in the groundwater. This study is concerned with the treatment of chromium-contaminated groundwater, specifically for the case of chromium refining waste sites located in Hudson County. The selection of reactive media for chromate removal with permeable reactive barriers from groundwater under alkaline conditions (pH about 12) needs to be investigated as most of the chromium-contaminated sites in New Jersey have high pH. The main objective of this research was to select the best reactive medium (RM) to be used in PRB to treat chromate-contaminated groundwater (GW) under the high alkaline conditions present at New Jersey sites.Prepared for NJDEP by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), University Heights, Newark, NJ 07102Purpose: To report progress on the third year of a program established to treat chromium contaminated groundwater