Opal Group Inc.

River Barrier


Sun Oil

Tulsa, OK

The Sun Tulsa Refinery is approximately 850 acres in size and was constructed in the early 1900s. The refinery is bordered by the Arkansas River for two and one-half miles. As part of the RCRA program, Opal personnel designed and constructed a barrier wall and recovery well system to halt the migration of NAPLs in Riverbank Areas A and C and to prevent sheen from forming on the surface of the Arkansas River adjacent to the refinery.


In Area C, a 900-foot long soil/bentonite slurry wall was designed and installed to depths varying from 39 to 41. The slurry wall was keyed several feet into a regional shale layer. To prevent mounding behind the wall, five dual extraction wells were designed and installed to depress ground water from the upgradient side of the slurry wall. The ground water extraction created cones of depression to trap NAPLs and facilitate NAPL recovery using skimmer pumps located within the same dual-extraction wells. A conveyance and treatment system to manage extracted ground water by oil/water separation prior to discharge to the Arkansas River was included as part of this design and construction project.

A similar extraction, treatment and NAPL recovery system using four dual-extraction wells was installed as a hydraulic barrier in Area C. Installation of a slurry wall in Area C was impractical due to subsurface obstructions. Efficiencies were realized for Area A and C remedial systems by designing and constructing one ground water treatment plant to service both riverbank areas

 

Type of Construction: Slurry Wall, Recovery Wells

Size: 900 ft long, 40 ft deep, 5 wells

Services: Environmental Remediation

Related Projects: Ground Water Extraction and Treatment, Ground Water Treatment, Soil Vapor Extraction and Air Sparge