In-situ Treatment

In-situ Treatment

In-situ (pronounced in sitju) is a Latin phrase that simply means “in place” or “in position.” In the environmental world, in-situ treatment refers to contaminant treatment at the site or the place of the contamination. Since you have navigated to this page, it is likely that you are looking for a remediation option for either soil and/or groundwater contamination. In-situ treatment is a cutting edge treatment option for sub-surface heating oil contamination.

Why would someone choose in-situ treatment over other treatment options like traditional excavation? In-situ treatment can be effective when site conditions don’t allow for the physical removal of contamination via excavation. Sometimes in-situ treatment is the chosen remedy when physical restraints of a property make the removal of contaminated soils difficult, impossible, or simply too costly. An example of the above would be a physical structure such as a house foundation or the house itself. Sometimes in-situ treatment is the chosen remedy when the contamination is so widespread that physical removal of all impacted soils by structural support is simply impractical. Other times, in-situ treatment is the chosen remedy when a homeowner has grown tired of the physical disturbance of his or her property as a result of a lengthy environmental cleanup. As the term suggests, in-situ treatment is conducted “in place” without the need for excessive disruption of a property’s use. In-situ treatment can achieve the desired results of clean soil and/or groundwater without negatively impacting a homeowner’s quality of life and use of property.

How does in-situ treatment work? Two ways actually. The first is Bio-remediation. Heating oil contamination or other petroleum product in soils and shallow groundwater is broken down naturally over time by microorganisms (or bugs) that are already present in the environment. So what’s the problem? The problem is that the natural break down of heating oil contamination or other petroleum product is a decades long (or more) process. In-situ treatment works by enhancing this natural process and speeding it up considerably. Oxygen and nutrients in the subsurface are needed for the natural cleanup process to take place. Therefore, in-situ treatment involves the introduction of substances to the subsurface that will increase the amount of oxygen and nutrients making the naturally present “bugs” productive in consuming the heating oil contamination. This process is successful for the remediation of impacted soils and persistent low-level groundwater contamination.

The other process is known as Chemical Oxidation. Chemical oxidation, as the name implies uses powerful oxidizers injected into the soil to literally “rip apart” the contamination at the molecular level into harmless by-products.

These cleanup activities do require the approval of the State of New Jersey prior to commencing which Marksmen Enterprises, LLC obtains in advance of injections.

Yes, in-situ treatment is a cutting edge treatment option for subsurface heating oil contamination. However, this treatment option has been around for decades and has been found to be safe and effective under certain site conditions. Marksmen Enterprises, LLC has been successfully utilizing in-situ treatment for a number of years for the cleanup of soils and groundwater that have been negatively impacted by a heating oil discharge or other petroleum product.