Injecting Innovative Remediation Products Relies Upon Quality, Innovative Tooling from Geoprobe®

When completing an in situ remediation project, AST Environmental typically starts vertically at the top of contaminant plume and finishes at the bottom extent of the contaminant plume deploying product in an isolateral grid — injecting top, down every 2-feet vertically to create a subsurface latticework of treatment within the subsurface. They rely on Geoprobe^® 1.5-inch and 2.25-inch rods along with the 1.5-inch pressure activated injection probes.

“Initially the pressure activated injection probes had 4, ¼-inch diameter holes. But as we evolved, we decided an injection probe with more holes would provide more opportunity for the distribution of the remediation product we were injecting,” Borth said. “Also, a smaller diameter hole would be needed to provide a higher exit velocity in order to achieve distribution in certain lithologies.”

Borth reached out to Lee Shaw, sales representative, to see whether Geoprobe^® could provide a solution.

“AST has developed strategic subsurface injection methodologies where Geoprobe^® has been able to customize a 1.5-inch injection tip needed for us to overcome challenging subsurface lithologies,” Borth said. “We like the check valves in the pressure activated injection probes to reduce the chance of subsurface material entering the injection probe, clogging our tooling.”

The 5/32-inch holes, in combination with pump speed, provides higher exit velocity at the injection tip. This helps the remediation product get distributed within subsurface lithologies in order make contact with the contaminant.

“Geoprobe^® was able to listen to the customer and work with us to see if they could help us out,” Borth said. “They helped us out by manufacturing the tooling and keeping it on the shelves.”

Tooling plays a critical role in their remediation success, so they depend upon Geoprobe^® quality.

“The quality of the heat treatment Geoprobe^® provides on their tooling is higher quality than others I’ve used. Other tooling we’ve used historically has cracked. In one specific instance, I sent back tooling due to the male threads breaking or cracking,” Borth said. “Geoprobe^® tooling handles everything we do. In one job we may do 50 injection points or we may do 600, so there’s lots of wear and tear on the tooling. We’ve had projects where a 3230DT was used to advance the tooling through very difficult lithologies and once the tooling was removed, the tooling had very little wear and tear.”

When performing injections, and especially when using the 1.5-inch probe rods with 1.5-inch pressure activated injection probe, they want to make sure they get a good seal between the rods so as to not lose any of the remediation product between the tooling joints.

“When rods are worn, they don’t provide a tight seal causing the potential to lose the remediation product at the joint and not at the injection probe where the contamination resides in the subsurface,” Borth said. “For us, it’s critical to job success to have a tight connection between the rods.”

Borth recalls when Geoprobe^® came out with the rope thread design on the rods.

“It was a game changer,” he said. “I was working at another company, and we were using a different brand of rods. The best thing that ever happened was losing those rods down the hole so I didn’t have to use them anymore.”

It’s not just the innovation and quality that keeps Borth coming back to Geoprobe^® for tooling. It’s also the relationships.

“Geoprobe^® strives for high quality and excellency in all they do. Having working with them in some way shape or form more than 15 years, you are able to build a relationship. In particular, for me, that is with Lee Shaw [sales representative],” Borth said. “I’m able to call him and ask him questions or bounce ideas off of him and see how Geoprobe^® is able to help us in our little remediation world we work in. I don’t get that with other vendors.”