1-4 Dioxane Treatment in Mountain View, Calif.

Pollution Engineering, Casebook

Mountain View, Calif. 1 July 2004 — As the consultant for a Fortune 500 semiconductor company at the San Francisco Bay Area Superfund site, Locus Technologies was facing a number of challenges. In 2003, the California Regional Water Quality Control Board requested that the effluent of all treatment facilities within the Superfund site be sampled for 1,4-dioxane. Data obtained during these tests indicated that 1,4-dioxane was present in the effluent at levels of 15 ppb, whereas the statutory discharge limit for 1,4-dioxane was 5 ppb. Additionally, local residents had raised concerns that airborne volatile organic compounds (VOCs) should not be discharged into the atmosphere. Based on these issues, Locus’s client desire to replace its existing air stripping/vapor carbon/aqueous carbon polishing treatmrnt technolgy with an innovative treatment technology that would:

  • Remove or destroy VOCs and 1,4-dioxane
  • Provide cost-efficient treatment
  • Be easily expandable in the future
  • Be able to meet projected EPA discharge requirements

The design flow rate for the treatment system was 50 gpm. Influent groundwater concentrations had a significant bearing on both the capital and the operation and maintenance (O&M) costs for the required treatment technology. The design influent concentrations are shown in Table 1.

During the early stages of the design process, Locus personnel brought a mobile advanced ozone/peroxide pilot treatment facility known as ozone peroxide, to the site. The engineers also ran a series of performance tests on the actual groundwater. Meanwhile, groundwater samples were sent to various UV/peroxide manufacturers and equipment suppliers so as to obtain process design requirements, capital price quotations and O&M cost for each of the various process treatment systems being considered.

Based on data from pilot studies, treatability studies and evaluations using carbon isotherms, each of the equipment suppliers was able to provide lump sum capital and guaranteed O&M costs for the influent groundwater specified (see Table 1). The scope of services specified for this treatment project were quite specific and required forfeiture of equipment costs should the treatment process not meet the discharge requirements and/or the O&M costs exceed those values provided. Plugging the design groundwater specified into its equations the manufacturers provided equipment capital cost pricing and annual O&M cost. Locus presented its findings in a Basis of Design Report that determined the construction cost and 15-year total present value for each system. Based on the strength of both pilot study results and guaranteed capital and O&M costs, the client chose to proceed with the ozone perioxide system.

Locus proceeded to order the specified equipment and begin construction. Following installation of the equipment, the manufacturers started and operated the treatment system for a period of one week. During that time, the company’s personnel carried out a detailed performance test to verify the destruction efficiency of the process and calculate the actual cost to operate the system. After completing the test phase, the manufacturer provided filed training for the Locus O&M staff.

Locus personnel discovered satisfactorily that the ozone peroxide system completely destroyed 1,4-dioxane without producing measurable air emissions. The fully automated system utilized multiple ozone injection points that increased treatment efficiency. Ozone was injected at high pressure to improve its solubility and thus reduce operational costs. The system could be easily expanded to accommodate changes in flow rates or contaminant concentration. costs to operate the system were very definable and reliable.

The ozone peroxide system has operated flawlessly since it was commissioned in December 2003 and maintained consistent effluent results. Furthermore, the O&M costs have remained below those values that were guaranteed in the original equipment proposal.

For more information about the remediation of 1,4-dioxane and the use of the treatment system at the San Francisco Bay Area Superfund Site, visit www.locustec.com.

Locus Wins Geothermal, Inc. Facility Closure Project

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, 6 October 2003 — Locus Technologies (Locus), a leader in environmental consulting and construction services, announced today that it has been awarded a contract to provide design-build services for closure of the Geothermal Inc. (GI) Facility Closure Project. The contract will be performed over a three-year period.

The GI Facility is an inactive disposal facility located near Middletown, Lake County, California. The facility includes seven surface impoundments and two disposal trenches that accepted liquid and solid waste from the geothermal energy exploration and production fields. The non-hazardous waste is a mixture of geothermal well drilling fluids and other geothermal power plant wastes. The three-year facility closure will consist of completing the final engineering design and necessary closure documents, obtaining necessary permits, and performing closure construction activities. The waste will be solidified and capped with a low-permeability engineered closure cover system consisting of a geomembrane barrier layer, geocomposite drainage layer, and clean vegetated soil cover. Pond liquids will be treated using reverse-osmosis and thin-film solar evaporation technologies. In addition, phytoremediation will be used to lower groundwater to achieve the required separation from the waste. Disposal trenches will be excavated, solidified, and consolidated into the closure cells. When implemented, closure will assure the long-term protection of human health and environment.

GI’s owners and operators abandoned the site in 1986 and filed for bankruptcy before posting their required closure bond. Consequently, 17 companies that disposed of material at GI are financing the closure. A Site Management Committee with top environmental staff from five of the companies has been planning the closure. Under the contract, Locus will provide turnkey professional consulting, engineering, and construction services for remedial
construction.

“We are very pleased to be selected by the GI Site Management Committee to close the GI site. This further demonstrates Locus’s ability to provide turnkey consulting and construction services to our clients on complex, multidisciplinary soil and groundwater sites. We will be working closely with the Cooperating Entities, other specialty consultants, regulators, and the public to implement the remedy and restore the site,” said Dr. Neno
Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus Technologies.

Locus teams with MCC to provide accelerated groundwater remediation technology

WALNUT CREEK, Calif., 1 November 2002 — Locus Technologies (Locus), a global leader in environmental engineering, remediation and information management, announced today an exclusive teaming agreement with MCC Technology, Inc. (MCC) in the application of their patented Closed-Loop Bioreactor Technology. As part of its joint application and marketing partnership with MCC, Locus will be offering this remediation technology to its existing Fortune 500 client base and prospective new clients. MCC has committed to supporting Locus with the operational infrastructure and on-site operation of the remediation technology. The patented Closed-Loop Bioreactor Technology is gaining considerable interest in the engineering community for its ability to rapidly remove phase separated hydrocarbons from groundwater, often in less than 60 days. Likewise, it has the ability dissolve groundwater contaminants quickly, often within a 9-month period or less. Locus believes this technology will offer clients the ability to rapidly obtain closure for their groundwater sites, often in less than a year. The system is effective on common fuel constituents, such as BTEX, as well as pervasive additives, such as MTBE.

“The application of the Closed-Loop Bioreactor Technology will make the closure of complicated groundwater sites a reality. Clients can now make informed business decisions about the value of impaired properties in months, rather than years. Our system will reduce project cleanup schedules often by as much as 75%, allowing the value of impaired property to be realized and credited. Closure costs can now be more precisely defined, with substantial savings compared to traditional technology. The Closed-Loop Bioreactor delivers yet another powerful tool to Locus’s arsenal of cost savings technologies designed to lower cost at environmentally impacted sites,” said Neno Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus Technologies.

 

ABOUT MCC TECHNOLOGIES
MCC provides long-term remediation of soil and groundwater caused by contamination of hydrocarbon-based pollutants. With more than 15 years of experience in remediation, the patented Bio-Sparge(SM) system has recently been approved as an innovative technology for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Locus advises Adtranz and Lucchini Group on sale of manufacturing facilities in United Kingdom and Sweden

PARIS, FRANCE AND WALNUT CREEK, CA., 17 November 2000 — Locus Technologies International, LLC (Locus), a fully owned subsidiary of Locus Technologies, today announced that they acted as environmental consultant to ADtranz and Lucchini Group for environmental due diligence and site investigation during sale of ADtranz Wheelset manufacturing facilities in Manchester, UK and Surahammar, Sweden to the Lucchini Group of Brescia, Italy. The ADtranz facilities being sold produce approximately 50,000 wheels and some 3,200 assembled wheelsets annually for various railway applications. Together, the ADtranz Wheelset plants have more than two centuries of experience in the production of wheels, with the first such activities dating back to 1866 in Surahammar and 1908 in Manchester. Locus performed fast-track field investigation at the Surahammar facility and supervised field investigation performed at the Manchester site. Locus also assisted in review of legal documents and insurance guarantees related to environmental liabilities.

“We are very pleased that Locus was selected to assist ADtranz and Lucchini with this important transaction,” said Neno Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus. “Locus was able to mobilize necessary resources in a short period of time and perform field investigation at manufacturing facilities that have been in operation over a century. This performance demonstrates our ability to provide excellent services to our clients around the globe on short notice. We are also pleased that Lucchini has expanded its relationship with Locus from environmental projects in France and Italy to include newly acquired sites in the UK and Sweden. We believe application of Locus’s award-winning Internet portal, LocusFocus™, to these environmental projects is a big reason for this expansion.”

The Lucchini Group, with 20 plants throughout Europe (10 in Italy, nine in France, and one in Poland), is a leader in the manufacturing of quality long-steel products. The Lucchini Group has annual revenues of 1.7 billion Euros. ADtranz is a leading global provider of railway services, systems, and rolling stock and operates under the legal name “DaimlerChrysler Rail Systems” and had 1999 total sales of 3.5 billion Euros.”

Monitoring Waste From a Safe Distance

ENR Magazine

Walnut Creek, Calif., 7 August 2000 — Locus Technologies announced June 26 that its Environment Information Management System has finished a testing period and is now being offered as a Web-based application.

Locus provides consulting, engineering and construction management services to help solve design and construction problems associated with hazardous materials handling and other waste management tasks.

The company’s EIMS system manages the large amounts of sampling, analytical, and geotechnical data that is typically collected during the investigation and cleanup of contaminated waste sites.

The system can be used to plan and schedule sampling events, input field data, upload electronic data from analytical laboratories, produce downloadable reports and files, perform statistical and trend analysis, and create and display plots and other graphics. It also is capable of sophisticated numerical modeling for surface water, groundwater and air and contaminant migration.

“We have a very comprehensive Website where we manage all information associated with contaminated sites,” says Neno Duplancic, Locus president and CEO. “We not only manage it but also provide a means to interpret the data and use automated systems that are plugged into the same Website to control treatment itself. We can press the buttons on the screen and turn on the pumps all over the world.”

Duplancic says the software can “eliminate the need for somebody to sit in a pickup truck and go to the site to change a filter or turn on a pump.”

By Tom Sawyer

Locus Technologies awarded groundwater contract at Singer-Friden Site in San Leandro, Calif.

WALNUT CREEK, Calif., 24 May 2000 — Locus Technologies (Locus) today announced that they were awarded a contract for construction of the groundwater treatment system for the Singer-Friden site in San Leandro, CA.

The contract was awarded by URS Corporation of San Francisco, California, who designed the project under contract to the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC). The construction work to be performed by Locus is the final part of the clean up of solvents in the groundwater underneath the Singer-Friden site. These actions being taken were outlined in the Remedial Action Plan approved for the site in 1995. Locus’s scope of work includes completing the groundwater extraction well system, installing conveyance piping, constructing a fully automated groundwater treatment plant designed for remote operation, and startup and shakedown services.

“This is obviously an important win for us,” said Neno Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus Technologies. “It demonstrates our competitiveness and ability to provide the full range of services that are required for cleaning up contaminated groundwater. We are happy that our experience constructing advanced automated groundwater treatment
systems has allowed us to compete successfully for this major project at the DTSC-Singer-Friden site.” With this award, Locus reinforces its position as the nation’s leading provider of groundwater services. Locus is a pioneer in the use of Internet technologies to automate groundwater treatment and information management through their LocusFocusTM web portal.

Project execution will come jointly from Locus Technologies’ offices in Mountain View and Walnut Creek, California. The contract requires construction to be completed within 60 days. Construction is to begin immediately.

Locus Technologies awarded groundwater implementation at three Philips Semiconductors sites in Silicon Valley, CA

WALNUT CREEK, Calif., 7 July 1999 — Locus Technologies (Locus) today announced that they were awarded a contract for groundwater remediation and operation and maintenance services at three Philips Semiconductors sites in Silicon Valley, CA.

The three sites include Arques (on-site and off-site), Evelyn, and Kifer. Each site has a California Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) Cleanup and Abatement Order and a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. Locus’s scope of work includes management of the groundwater program, operation, maintenance, monitoring, and optimization of extraction and treatment systems, information management, automation, permitting, groundwater elevation monitoring and sampling, and regulatory agency reporting.

“This is obviously an important win for us,” said Neno Duplancic, President and CEO of Locus Technologies. “It demonstrates our competitiveness and ability to provide Philips Semiconductors with a single source for managing their groundwater programs in the Silicon Valley. We are happy that our approach to groundwater operation and maintenance, VOC experience in the Silicon Valley, and Internet-based automation solutions will help lower the overall cost of the Philips Semiconductors groundwater program.” With this award, Locus reinforces its position as the largest groundwater consultant and remediation company in the Silicon Valley. (The San Jose Business Journal, March 19, 1999).

Project execution will come primarily from Locus Technologies’ office in Mountain View, California. The term of the contract is one year with two optional renewal years. The project started in June 1999.

Locus Technologies announces formation of Automation and Environmental Information Management groups and staff additions

WALNUT CREEK, Calif., 29 June 1999 — Locus Technologies announced today formation of Automation and Data Management Groups. Both groups will employ Internet based technologies to manage and control vast amounts of data generated at the company’s client sites.

Locus also announced the appointment of Steven McEvoy, P.E., to the position of Director, Automation Group, and Gregory Buckle, Ph.D., to the position of Director, Data Management, both newly created positions.

McEvoy, 33, has been with the company since its inception and has led the development of the company’s state-of-the-art automation technology for control and management of environmental treatment systems via the Internet. The technology is currently employed to control groundwater treatment systems for Locus’s clients, including Schlumberger, FMC, and Union Pacific Railroad. McEvoy holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Alberta. McEvoy will head Locus’s Automation Group, a team of experienced electrical, mechanical, and computer science engineers, including Dr. Robert Campbell, who also joins the company this week from the General Electric Company. Campbell holds a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and an M.S. degree from the University of Alberta. He will be managing the development of a second generation browser-based project archival database.

Buckle, 48, will head Locus’s data management systems and brings to Locus more than 20 years of experience in the environmental industry, specializing in surface and groundwater hydrology, including 9 years in environmental database management. Most recently, Buckle was the lead developer and designer of the IT Group’s environmental data management system. He holds a Ph.D. in biology from Kansas University, an M.S. in civil engineering from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a B.A. from Stanford University. Buckle will be responsible for development and operation of Locus’s Internet-based Environmental Information Management (EIMTM) system.

“Locus is aggressively moving downstream from site cleanups to management and control of large amounts of data that are generated by the environmental industry, using Internet based technologies. The company has a head-start on Internet technology and plans to capitalize on this position in a fragmented environmental industry information management market. Ultimately, Locus plans to commercialize these technologies,” said Dr. Neno Duplancic, President and Chief Executive Officer of Locus. “Greg and Steve’s experiences as a leaders in environmental data management, automation, and control technologies will ensure our success in this rapidly growing field,” Duplancic added.

Locus Technologies awarded remediation system installation at Union Pacific Railroad Yard in Tracy, CA.

WALNUT CREEK, Calif., 5 May 1999 — Locus Technologies today announced that they were awarded a contract for groundwater remediation system installation at Union Pacific Railroad’s yard in Tracy, CA.

The remediation project will be managed in four phases: (1) construction of the infiltration trench, (2) construction of the extraction wells, (3) installation of the treatment system, and (4) system automation. As a leader in the field of groundwater treatment and automation, Locus will apply the most advanced techniques for installation of mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, and control systems.

Locus Technologies is thrilled to have the opportunity to install an advanced automated groundwater treatment system at UPRR’s Tracy Yard. This is the third in a series of UPRR groundwater treatment system automation projects awarded to Locus Technologies in recent months. “It clearly demonstrates that Locus’s state-of-the-art Internet-based automation technology, when coupled with system installation, provides significant reduction of the overall cost for groundwater remediation projects. We are pleased that we can transfer those savings to UPRR,” said Mr. Neno Duplancic, President of Locus Technologies.