Palos Verdes Class 1 Industrial Hazardous Waste Site May 7th, 2002
These
pipes carry captured methane gas. In addition to this "patch" job, notice
the cracking evident in the soil.
Close
up of another "patch" job on the P.V. Landfill site. This was just one
of many such connections bound with tape.
At
least there is no tape.
This is a discarded Air Stripper. The Air Stripper removes the Volatile Organic
Contaminants (VOC) from the recovered toxic leachate. The toxic leachate is sprayed
through a nozzle at the top of the air stripper and gravity spreads it over the packing
material (the wiffle ball looking objects) while air is forced up from below. As
the air comes in contact with the leachate the VOCs are removed from the leachate
and into the forced air. As deposits build up on the packing material (as evident
here) the efficiency of the transfer is affected and the packing material must be
either chemically cleaned or replaced. South Bay CARES asked a retired engineer with
experience working with Air Strippers what was done with the packing material once
it became fouled. His reply was that his corporation would ship the packing materials
to a hazardous waste landfill for proper disposal. This discarded Air Stripper and
its contents was located on the Upper Deck of the P.V. Landfill.