BYTEMITE'S BLOG

Bytemite

Scientific!
Thursday, April 2, 2009

Not really firefly or fic related, but I wanted to share. Some chemistry and enviro-sci ahead.

Today I got back some lab results and a report from some sampling a voluntary clean-up applicant performed that I assisted with.

The results of the report are awesome. Okay, so, when I was looking over the October sampling report, I was concerned because there was a big jump in concentration in one of the wells. There were two possibilities I came up with; either there was another source for the chlorinated solvents, or the remediation treatment had mobilized a slightly more concentrated "plug" of contamination through the groundwater.

If it was a plug, once it passed, we would expect the concentration to go back down. If there was another source, we might see concentrations escalate until they were high enough to start volatilizing the chemicals. If the chemicals volatilized, they would degass from the ground water and soil... Directly into an apartment complex that the plume had migrated towards. You can see why we were concerned.

But the results came back, concentration is back down. Now, long term they might still be increasing, and that higher value we hit was just a fluke, but if concentration is going to increase, I'd like it to increase at a slow enough pace we can catch it before anyone gets hurt.

And at these concentrations, so long as the apartment complex doesn't install any drinking wells, the contaminant won't reach anyone. Good news!

Also, today, despite my anxiety issues and automobile-phobia, I drove 28 miles... Solo... For the first time in my life. No family members or supervisors were present. And I didn't die.

Woo hoo!

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Thursday, April 2, 2009 8:13 PM

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