Environmental consultants, and those who work directly on chemical plant and water solution projects, know the importance of ensuring the groundwater contamination avoidance. In fact, more than 80% of the most serious American hazardous waste sites have negatively impacted the quality of nearby groundwater at some point. This is obviously an issue many companies continue to work to avoid through the use of improved and advanced ground water solutions and other environmental remediation contracting services. Relying on commercial dewatering systems is one of the ways that companies do this is to that can effectively remove the water from a specific site. Wellpoints, eductor wells, sump pumping, and deepwells are the four main types of techniques provided by commercial dewatering systems:
Wellpoints. This dewatering method uses lines or rings or of closely-spaced wells installed around the excavation area. The wells, or “wellpoints,” are then connected to a headerpipe and pumped by wellpoint pumps that can handle both air and water. This system primarily works using the suction principle, so drawdown using this method is limited to around five to six meters below the wellpoint pump level. If a deeper drawdown is required, multiple stages of wellpoints must be used.
Eductor Well. The eductor well method is a dewatering process used to control low water pressures in materials with low permeability characteristics, such as fissured silts or clays. This method is also advantageous because it uses the venturi principle, the theory that high pressure water is circulated through eductors in the base of each well to create a vacuum that helps promote drainage.
Sump Pumping. This process allows groundwater to seep into the excavation area, where it is collected in sumps and pumped away by high-powered, solids-handling pumps. This method is often used in shallow excavation areas.
Deepwells Pumped by submersible pumps that help lower the groundwater level below the level of excavation, these systems use a bored well. With the deepwells method, the wells are typically installed at wide centers around the outside perimeter of the excavation area. This process is best suited for deep excavations when there are large drawdowns of liquid required.
Every year, as many as 16,000 chemical spills occur from trains, trucks, and storage tanks. Very often these spills happen during the transfer of materials. These are just some of the many environmental issues that are addressed by a variety of groundwater monitoring and remediation and other environmental remediation services.