The “Dumb” Turkey

The “Dumb” Turkey

We’ve all heard it: “Turkeys are so stupid, they’ll look up at the sky and drown when it rains.” Turkeys have a distinctive, halting gait and often tilt their heads, which can give the impression that they are avian dullards. But turkeys are inquisitive creatures that explore their environment and exhibit problem-solving behaviors. In fact, they can recognize individual humans and will approach familiar people when food is involved.

The above picture shows a turkey curiously peering through my sister’s back door. She regularly throws out bird seed, and the turkeys show up on time for dinner. As I watched the bird’s behavior, it seemed the turkey associated the door with a reliable food source, if not the person who came out the door.

The Drowning Myth 

So, where does the drowning myth come from? It stems from a misunderstanding involving a rare genetic disorder present only in the domestic Wrolstad turkey. The disorder causes the turkey’s neck to twist, often leaving its beak pointing toward the sky. It is lethal in young birds. Hence, the turkey just stood in the rain and drowned. And so, the tale is told, and eventually, we all know that all turkeys are so stupid that….

The Power of Rumors 

Like many myths, it is a misunderstanding fueled by exaggeration. Just because something is frequently repeated doesn’t mean it’s true. For instance, the assertion that “you can’t put enough activated carbon in the ground to adsorb all the LNAPL” is a misunderstanding regarding the purpose of activated carbon in remediation. The purpose is to build a platform for microbial degradation, which degrades petroleum and opens up adsorption space on the activated carbon. In the following mini case, we did not put enough activated carbon in the ground to adsorb the LNAPL concentrations indicated by the data. We never try! Yet the results are positive, which is not an exaggeration.

Enjoy your turkey, and remember, like activated carbon, they have more going on than meets the eye!

Kind Regards,

Ed Winner, PhD, Vice President
Remediation Products, Inc.

Featured Case Study:

Optimizing Petroleum Remediation: A Case Study with BOS 200+ 

I want to focus on a small area from a petroleum LNAPL site where BOS 200+® was injected. The goal is to emphasize the rhythm of the characterization process. The circle in Figure 1 delineates the area and the three types of data collected from the area.

Site Overview: The site exhibited petroleum contamination entrained within clay and clay silts, with the water table located approximately 18 feet below the surface. Historically, site characterization was based on monitoring wells, supplemented by soil core samples taken during monitoring well installation. The monitoring wells extended to 20 feet bgs. After examining the site data, it was determined that additional characterization was appropriate.

Characterization Approach: To accurately identify and delineate the extent of the LNAPL, Ultraviolet Optical Screening Tool (UVOST®) was employed to pinpoint contamination. We found that the contamination extended deeper than 20 feet in the processes. In Figure 2, a strong return is evident below 20 feet. Using this and similar UVOST data, nested monitoring wells were installed. Soil cores were collected, and samples from those cores underwent comprehensive analysis at the RPI Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, enabling us to quantify petroleum mass and identify various analytes, including alcohols, fatty acids, and gases. Our findings indicated an estimated petroleum mass of 725 ± SD 75 Kg, in the area shown in Figure 1.

Application of BOS 200+: BOS 200+ was systematically injected in situ using a 7.5-foot triangular grid throughout the contaminated area in Figure 1 and through the vertical thickness of LNAPL contamination illustrated in Figure 2. All site monitoring wells were cleaned or rehabilitated after site injection. The results are presented in Figure 3. The petroleum-associated contaminants exhibited an immediate reduction of 100 to 1000-fold, and these low levels have been sustained over a year. All data not presented are consistent with Figure 3.

Conclusion: This case study exemplifies the effectiveness of combining advanced characterization techniques with cutting-edge remedial technologies like BOS 200+. Monitoring of the site continues.

Figure 1 presents the spatial relationship between the data collection points in the LNAPL area. The outer circle indicates the approximate area of remediation on which we are focused. The vertical thickness of the contamination, not depicted by the illustration, was about 12 feet.

 

Figure 2 compares the UVOST, electrical conductivity, and the rate at which the probe descended. We’ll focus on the percent return. The signal is evident at about 16 ft to 27 ft interval. The strongest return picks up at about 22 ft and tails off about 24-25 ft. The most significant mass of petroleum is ingrained below the clayey silt layer at 20 ft. The two blue lines mark the lithology that corresponds to the strong UVOST return.

 

Figure 3 shows BTEX from MW-2, which has a history of having the highest petroleum concentrations of any monitoring well on site. BOS 200+ injection was initiated at time zero “0.” Depending on the contaminant, the BTEX in groundwater immediately declined 10 to 100-fold. Benzene is the most soluble of the BTEX constituents, and it has a lower heat of adsorption to activated carbon, so it is often the last to fall.

Upcoming Webinar

Natural Source Zone Depletion and the Activated Carbon Remedy

December 12, 2024 12:00PM EST/ 10:00AM MST

Hosted By: Mike Mazzarese, AST Environmental; Edward Winner, Remediation Products Inc

REGISTER TODAY

NAPL Natural Source Zone Depletion (NSZD) occurs through the combined action of natural processes that reduce the mass of LNAPL in the subsurface. In practice, NSZD is rarely employed as the sole remedy but is often a polishing step that follows one or more active remedies. Some active remedies accommodate NSZD better than others. We will demonstrate that carbon-based injectates particularly support NSZD by presenting field and laboratory data showing that carbon-based injectates reduce LNAPL and data demonstrating that activated carbon facilitates biodegradation. We will further demonstrate that contaminants absorbed into the microporous structure of carbon are bioavailable and that biodegradation regenerates the adsorption capacity of the activated carbon. Thus, redistributing LNAPL into the carbon’s pore structure is not limited by its initial adsorption capacity. Therefore, activated carbon supports a continuing physical redistribution of LNAPL and supports biodegradation.

REGISTER TODAY

Send Us Your Site Data for a FREE Comprehensive Evaluation

No Comments

Post A Comment