Matthew Biega – Gradient Corp
Life cycle assessments (LCAs) empower stakeholders to understand environmental impacts and allow for informed decision-making regarding sustainable alternatives. One LCA application that supports the comparison of environmental impacts is the selection of remedial corrective actions. This study reviewed a comprehensive LCA performed to assess the environmental sustainability of corrective action alternatives for groundwater remediation at an example industrial site. Three corrective action alternatives were considered: monitored natural attenuation (MNA), pump and treat (P&T), and permeable reactive barriers (PRBs). As part of this LCA, a variety of environmental impact categories were evaluated, including global warming, acidification, eutrophication, ozone depletion, smog, respiratory effects, human health, and ecotoxicity. The findings of the comparative LCA revealed substantial differences in the environmental impacts associated with MNA, P&T, and the PRB when each of the methods were applied to the example site. MNA was found to have the lowest overall environmental impacts, followed by P&T, while the PRB had the highest impacts. Operational energy of the pumping system was determined to be the major impact driver in the P&T scenario, while the potential impacts of the PRB were shown to be driven by the reactive medium supply.