Expansive Soil & Hazardous Soil Remediation Services
What is Expansive Soil
Expansive or swelling soil is a highly plastic soil that normally contains montmorillonite and other active clay minerals. Expansive soil is a commonly identified problem that has made scientists concerned about the design, protection, and operation of highway and structural systems. Expansive soils can be found in arid/semi-arid areas, where even moderate expansive soils can cause major damage to the structure or in humid environments where just expansive soils with high softness can lead the structure to be damaged. The behaviors of an expansive soil can be affected by many factors, among which the principal ones are the availability of moisture and the amount and type of clay-size particles in the soil.
It is worth mentioning that when the water changes in expansive soil, the volume would be changed as well. These volume changes can lead to either swelling or shrinkage and that is why expansive soils are also known as swell/shrink soils.
Various techniques have been used to alter the characteristics of the soil or stabilize the moisture regime around the foundation or pavement. These techniques can be grouped into one or more of the following categories:
- removal and replacement
- prewetting
- chemical admixtures &
- water content control
Prewetting of expansive soils has been used with varying levels of success to reduce the expansion potential. Chemical admixtures that are available for the treatment of expansive soil may be divided into two groups. These include traditional materials such as hydrated lime, Portland cement, fly ash, and nontraditional chemical agents.
Hazardous Soil
Remediation services factor in the sites that have been directly and indirectly contaminated; both the initial point of contamination and the places where contaminants have spread must be treated. When working with water, for example, contamination could be widespread and difficult to trace.
In the waste management industry, remediation refers to the reversal of environmental damage. Removing and cleaning up contamination is an extensive process that involves the elimination of hazardous materials from four kinds of contaminated sites: groundwater, surface water, soil, and sediment.
What causes contamination?
Contamination of sites could be caused by large-scale environmental events, like industrial oil spills or hazardous waste emergencies. It could also be the product of the long-term, accumulating environmental health decline caused by pollution, sewage, treatment plants, or by-products of industrial activity.
Orion handles remediation efforts that include:
Groundwater Remediation
Groundwater remediation treats contaminated water beneath the earth’s surface. Contaminated groundwater could be a result of industrial spills, runoff, and landfill seepage. Groundwater remediation efforts could include physically removing the water from the ground for treatment, injecting chemical counterparts, or utilizing biological defenses.
Surface Water Remediation
Surface water remediation efforts remove pollution from contaminated bodies of water that are above the ground. Remediation methods for these situations are similar to those for groundwater.
Soil Remediation
Soil remediation treats contamination that builds up in the soil and affects agricultural and environmental health.
Sediment Remediation
Sediment remediation treats pollution in the sediments that accumulate at the bottom of bodies of water.
The goal of remediation is to remove and clean up contaminated sites to protect humans and the environment. To accomplish this, a regulation-compliant team must fully execute an extensive, carefully planned remediation effort complete with continued monitoring after the remediation.
Orion’s Remediation Services include any solution you may need to correct environmental damage from spills, seepage, or other forms of contamination. Contact Orion for information on available remediation services. Contact Us
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