NASA Jet Propulsion Lab in La Canada Flintridge

Groundwater treatment system

Schematic showing contaminant plume beneath site

Groundwater monitoring well being installed

Monitoring multi-port Westbay well

Fluidized bio-reactor cleans up chemical contamination

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in La Canada Flintridge, California is a unique national research facility that carries out robotic space and Earth science missions. JPL developed America’s first Earth-orbiting science satellite, created the first successful interplanetary spacecraft, and sends robotic missions to study all the planets in the solar system as well as asteroids, comets and Earth’s moon.

Work at the JPL has involved the use of chemicals for rocket propulsion since the 1930s. The use, storage and disposal of these chemicals resulted in the contamination of soil and groundwater with hexavalent chromium, chlorinated solvents, perchlorate, and 1-4, dioxane. The soil beneath the site has been remediated and groundwater cleanup is on-going. The Bodhi-Tidewater JV is providing support for the Environmental Restoration of groundwater, including quarterly monitoring, operation, maintenance, and optimization of the Groundwater Source Area Treatment System on the JPL campus (called OU1), preparation of Federal Facility Agreement (FFA) documentation, cost/schedule-to-complete estimates, community-outreach support, technical analyses, contaminant fate and transport modeling, engineering evaluations, and chemical trend analyses.

The Bodhi Group performs:

• System operation activities at OU1 including daily monitoring, laboratory analyses of process water, data evaluation, progress reporting, system maintenance and well rehabilitation.
• Optimization of the treatment system and process, developing fouling prevention techniques, and liquid-phase granular activated carbon (LGAC) change-out.
• Technical oversight of subcontractors including laboratory quality assurance, technical response to unscheduled conditions, and alternatives for revised compliance requirements.
• Quarterly groundwater monitoring in multi-port Westbay wells as well as conventional shallow wells and preparation of groundwater technical monitoring reports.