The remediation system cleaning up a Hanover neighborhood’s chemically contaminated groundwater appears to be working.
On Thursday, at the Rennie Farm former burial site, where Dartmouth had been burying lab refuse leaving behind the chemical contaminant 1-4, dioxane, residents toured the pump and treat system.
The $2 million system sucks contaminated water from the ground and removes the chemical, before flushing the water back out. It was installed in February, and has been running at capacity since May 1, according to Jim Wieck, the hydrogeologist and senior project manager overseeing the cleanup.
Wieck says it is too soon to tell for sure that the system is effective, but some test wells have already lowered their contaminated water levels. "In general, it’s exceeding expectation," he said in front of a handful of Hanover residents on Thursday.
"I want to be cautious, we need to wait a number of months to be sure that the concentration drops are related to it," Wieck added. "The drops in water level [are] definitely related to the operation of the system. It’s very clear, and we expect to see an expansion of that area that’s affected as time progresses."
Some residents asked for Wieck and Dartmouth to provide more consistent updates on the progress of the pump and treat system. But Wieck says an official data collection and report on the cleanup progress is expected to be released in the next couple months.
