Two Decades of Remediation Services and Project Management Support
Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) • Southern California
Solution Overview
Client:
DLA
Business Challenge:
DLA operates a network of facilities, handling both dangerous goods, hazardous materials, and the conveyance of these materials to their destinations.
Solution:
Apex has provided an array of environmental engineering services including:
- Preparation of health and safety (H&S) plans
- Quality assurance project plans (QAPPs)
- Waste management plans
- Coordinated lab activities
- Site assessment
- Remedial action design
- Remediation system operation and maintenance (O&M)
- Groundwater monitoring and sampling services
- Compliance and permitting
Results:
At the completion of this project, nearly 500K cy of contaminated soil and associated contaminated groundwater will be remediated.
Challenge
The DLA manages the global supply chain for the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, Coast Guard, eleven combatant commands, and various other federal agencies for the entire nation. This includes overall management of a global supply chain that supplies 86 percent of the military’s spare parts and close to 100 percent of the fuel and troop support consumables. As such, DLA operates a network of facilities across the nation, handling both dangerous goods and hazardous materials, and the conveyance of these materials to their destinations.
Solution
Since 2002, Apex Companies, LLC [Apex]/The Source Group, Inc. [SGI] (Apex-SGI), has provided an array of environmental engineering services at two DLA‑operated military fuel storage and distribution facilities located in Southern California.
Over the past five years alone, our work at these sites has included preparation of H&S plans, QAPPs, waste management plans, coordinated lab activities, site assessment, remedial action design, remediation system O&M, groundwater and monitoring and sampling services, and compliance and permitting under numerous ongoing contracts.
We have performed O&M of over ten separate remediation systems which utilize groundwater extraction and treatment, biologic treatment processes, air sparging, light nonaqueous-phase liquid (LNAPL) recovery, thermal treatment, and/or vapor extraction technologies. Tasks completed included site investigations, groundwater monitoring and sampling, public participation support and engagement, and reporting (over 200 reports are generated each year); and conducting work in accordance with DLA Facilities Management, compliance, and permitting requirements.
Our services also include providing thermal remediation support to remediate petroleum contaminated soil and groundwater at nine areas of concern (AOC) located at the site:
- Working in concert with thermal remediation technology specialists, Apex-SGI’s engineers, geologists, and environmental specialists have completed the remediation of soil and groundwater at two former 2.1M-gallon capacity bulk, field‑constructed underground storage tanks (BFCUSTs) using steam injection and electrical resistance heating (ERH) methods. Thermal remediation systems are currently in operation at three additional BFCUST sites and preparations are underway for installation of similar systems at four more BFCUSTs
- As part of this turnkey project, Apex-SGI completed investigations to delineate the extents of the target remedial zones, prepared agency-approved remedial action designs and plans, installed the multi‑component treatment systems, and conducted remediation system O&M, and groundwater monitoring and sampling.
- Thermal remediation required remediation personnel to be on-site 24 hours a day, including weekends. Apex-SGI addressed this requirement in the project management plan and then coordinated security access and a communication structure to ensure access to the site for multiple crews.
- After approximately 12 months of active thermal remediation was completed, Apex-SGI conducted rebound testing, soil matrix confirmation sampling, and soil gas sampling at the first two thermal remediation sites. The results of this confirmation testing and analysis was used as the basis for preparing detailed Remedial Action Completion Reports (RACRs) for review by DLA and submittal to state regulators.
Results
We have earned repeated accolades from successive DLA project managers. In its recent CPAR (federal government rating system), DLA ranked Apex-SGI’s management at Defense Fuel Support Point (DFSP) San Pedro as “Exceptional” in the areas of quality, schedule cost control, management, and regulatory compliance. After removing over 260K pounds of hydrocarbon mass at the two former fuel storage tanks, the completion of confirmation soil sampling to confirm that soil cleanup goals had been achieved, and post‑treatment soil gas surveying demonstrated that no residual hydrocarbons were present in shallow soil gas, the State Board agreed that the thermal remediation phase of remediation was complete.
Apex-SGI is currently responsible for the remediation of soil and groundwater at over 20 AOCs at the facility, with a goal to complete all active remediation by the end of 2025. At the completion of this project, nearly 500K cy of contaminated soil and associated contaminated groundwater will be remediated.