Treatment system pumps at the WATER Center in Wichita.

CDM was retained by the city of Wichita to design a system to clean up ground water contamination across a 6-mile-wide area that threatened human health, the environment and the local economy. The resulting Gilbert Mosley Project uses 13 wells and 5.3 miles of piping to extract contaminated ground water for treatment, and “air stripper” technology to effectively treat 1.2 million gallons of ground water a day. Air strippers expose the water to air so that the contaminants - in this case volatile organic compounds including tetrachloroethene, trichloroethene, dichloroethene and vinyl chloride - can escape into the air, where they are vented away. The project also included construction of the Wichita Area Treatment, Education, and Remediation Center (WATER Center). In addition to housing the water treatment equipment, the center uses the treated ground water in fountains, aquariums, a meandering creek, an irrigation system and other water attractions. “This is an extraordinary project that has deservedly earned much national recognition. Not only have more than 1 billion gallons of contaminated ground water been cleaned to date, this project has the added value of educating the public about the vital role that ground water plays in their lives,” says NGWA's awards subcommittee chairperson Loyd Watson.

The Haley & Aldrich project involved removing the gasoline derivatives MTBE (Methyl tertiary butyl ether) and TBA (tertiary butyl alcohol) from ground water in the area of North Hollywood, Calif. The contamination had emanated from a former gasoline station site. In addition to the challenge of cleaning the ground water in an area that is densely populated and developed, Haley & Aldrich sought to eliminate the contamination without reducing the quantity of water in the aquifer. The site is located within the San Fernando Groundwater Basin, which is the source of the municipal and domestic water supply for the city of Glendale and the Crescenta Valley Water District. Haley and Aldrich developed a treatment system that removed contaminated water from the aquifer; treated it in bio-activated carbon beds with indigenous organisms; and reinjected the treated ground water back into the aquifer. Previously, a lack of confidence in the ability to reliably treat contaminated ground water prevented its beneficial re-use in California. The Haley Aldrich project bucked this trend by getting approval to return treated water to the aquifer. “This project used ingenuity to tackle a contamination problem and help people in need drinkable ground water. There is no higher calling than that in our industry,” notes Watson.