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Mr. Philip S. Isorena <br /> January 12, 2001 <br /> Page 2 <br /> including complete laboratory data packages was recently submitted in the 4th Quarterly <br /> Monitoring Report for 2000 dated January 4, 2001. <br /> Phase III of SVE treatment of the Source Area vadose zone soils was started on <br /> September 28th after a 7-month rest period. Sampling of soil vapor from all vapor <br /> monitoring points was performed immediately prior to the startup with analyses <br /> performed on-site by a mobile laboratory. Periodically, vapor samples were collected <br /> from the extraction wells using Summa canisters and the analyses were used to track <br /> mass removal. Based on decreasing soil vapor concentrations, it was decided to terminate <br /> Phase III SVE treatment on December 4 after 67 days of operation. Sampling for <br /> shutdown was conducted in the same manner as for startup. <br /> As shown on Figure IA, SVE was conducted in three phases during the past 1-1/2 years. <br /> Total VOC concentrations at the VEWs steadily declined during each phase of SVE <br /> operation and relatively small rebounds occurred after both rest periods. The overall <br /> reduction in concentration in the extracted vapor since the beginning of SVE treatment <br /> has been nearly three orders of magnitude. For example, the concentration at VEW-1 in <br /> the center of the Source Area decreased from approximately 900 mg/m3 during the April <br /> 1997 pilot test to ND (< 0.40 mg/m3 for each analyte) at the end of Phase III on December <br /> 14, 2000. At the end of Phase III, the VEW with the highest concentration was VEW-2 <br /> with 1.2 mg/m3 total VOCs. Table 1 shows that similar reductions of soil gas <br /> concentration have occurred at the VMPs. <br /> A standard of 1 ppmv (4.0 for 1,1-DCE and 5.5 mg/m3 for 1,1,1-TCA and TCE) is being <br /> utilized to initiate closure activities for SVE operations for remediation of chlorinated <br /> solvents at McClellan AFB. The recommendation at this threshold concentration is to <br /> consider termination of SVE, observe rebound and perform vadose zone modeling. By <br /> comparison, at the end of Phase III at the AASC site only a few samples from depths <br /> shallower than 35 feet had detections near this range (5 mg/m3, Table 2). The highest <br /> detection in the vadose zone shallower than 35 feet bgs on December 4, 2000, was 4.0 <br /> Mg/M3 total VOCs at VMP-3-27. <br /> Asymptotic Contaminant Mass Removal Rate <br /> Figure 1B summarizes mass removal data for both SVE soil treatment and groundwater <br /> extraction. The cumulative graph shows that mass removal by SVE approached an <br /> asymptotic curve at the end of Phase III. The figure also shows that the monthly mass <br /> removal for SVE during operational phases has been exceeded by groundwater extraction <br /> since January 2000. Phase III SVE removed approximately 0.7 lb of VOCs during 2 <br /> months of operation and only 0.2 lb during November. <br /> Confirmation Soil Vapor Sampling <br /> Confirmation soil gas borings are planned at 6 locations shown on Figure 2. The <br /> objective is to confirm that the low concentrations achieved at the VEWs and the VMPs <br /> have also been achieved at random intermediate points in the Source Area. Four (4) soil <br /> gas samples will be collected in each boring at various depths between 15 and 35 feet bgs <br /> for a total of approximately 24 samples. On November 6, 2000 the depth to the <br /> SVE CLOS.DOC 1/12/01 <br />