Former Manufactured Gas Plants
Environmental Monitoring Needs
Until the mid-1900s, gas for residential and commercial use was produced from coal or oil at hundreds of manufactured gas plants (MGPs) nationwide. MGP sites have significant surface and subsurface contamination from coal tar, residues from coal tar production and wastes from other supporting industrial operations (e.g., benzene, napthalene, heavy metals, cyanides).
Many of these contaminants are considered highly toxic, potentially cancer-causing and are a significant environmental risk to wildlife and water supplies. Remediation on MGP sites creates a noticeable and pungent odor that has led to heightened awareness by surrounding communities of the potential risks associated with the MGP contamination. As a result, MGP site-owners and contractors recognize that air monitoring must be a part of the remediation process.
The questions are:
- Is minimum compliance enough to cover liability and regulatory concerns?
- Can additional monitoring and the available data at a single source be a tangible and perceived benefit for community relations, continuous site remediation improvement and modeling for other sites?
- What are the non-tangible benefits of using the best equipment and developing a higher standard of best practices?
- Is it important that data stand up to quality control measures and reliability?
- Is the cost effectiveness of gathering more data, receiving more accurate data and access to the data in real time important and fulfilling the project hard and soft objectives?
- Is a leadership role in technology, safety and sustainability with the community, the company you?re your industry an important part of your company objectives?
Greenlight Solution
Perimeter and onsite air monitoring has become the standard of care for the utilities during MGP site remediation and construction. Emilcott Technologies’ innovations in particulate sorting and benzene detection along with lower operating costs make the Greenlight System a perfect fit for MGP remediation applications.
