Challenge

It seems fairly common the many dry cleaners end up have some amount of VOC’s accidentally spilled below the slab on grade. While this poses obvious environmental risks, the most immediate risk is to the staff working in the facility being exposed to known carcinogens.

Many solutions involve shutting the facility down, removal and replacement of the floor slab and the soil underneath. This process is expensive and time consuming, putting the people out of work that need protection for a great deal of time.

Solution

We have developed a number of technologies that facilitate tunneling under an existing slab on grade foundation to install intake extraction airways to help facilitate airflow needed for chemical extraction. The designing engineering was done by Partner ESI. 

Once the system was up and functioning, testing of the exhaust could determine the amount of VOC’s being extracted. At first the levels were significant. Over time we expect them to drop. This system is ideal for extracting perchlorates because the engineers tell me that they tends to stay near the surface as opposed to some chemicals that might have more of a tendency to sink to lower elevations.

For several years now, we have been installing the MoistureLevel System for different applications, including moisture vapor transmission through slabs on grade, benzene removal and most recently for Dry Cleaner perc removal.  I can’t help but wonder how many of the thousands of existing dry cleaner personnel could be protected with our systems. 

Project Summary

Consultant: Brent McIver

Foreman: Barry Anderson