Restoration Systems and Strategies

RSS GraphicMission -- The Restoration Systems and Strategies specialty area provides technical expertise to the Air Force in selection, design, implementation and optimization of restoration systems and strategies. The specialty area promotes efficient and effective restoration of contaminated sites throughout the remedy lifecycle and helps solve challenging remediation problems using sound science and engineering.

Overview -- The Restoration Systems and Strategies specialty area provides guidance for developing cleanup exit strategies, implementing effective remediation, and optimizing performance. Environmental Restoration Technical Support Branch, or CZTE, subject matter experts and specialists working in this specialty area collaborate with other Air Force personnel to assure that technical expertise in restoration is applied directly to Air Force cleanup responsibilities.

In recent years, Performance-Based Remediation, or PBR, has become a standard contracting approach for site restoration across the Air Force. Within the PBR paradigm, subject matter experts and specialists for the CZTE Restoration Systems and Strategies specialty area promote the use of performance models to optimize exit strategies and track progress toward cleanup goals. Independent assessments of remedial systems verify that remedial systems are operating properly and validate progress. Branch initiatives focused on complex sites and long-term financial liabilities provide a strong technical basis for exit strategies and performance objectives, and align overall contracting strategy with technical reality.

Remediation Systems

RSS Deploying Remediation Systems Technology Picture 1
The Environmental Restoration Technical Support Branch, or CZTE, provides expertise in deployment of innovative remediation technologies. The branch has established guidance and protocols for remedial process optimization, monitored natural attenuation, performance based management and in situ bioremediation.

Full-scale deployment of these technologies and others across the Air Force resulted from past efforts of the branch Technology Transfer Program in collaboration with many remediation professionals and organizations.

RSS Deploying Remediation Systems Technology PictureIn recent years, Performance-Based Remediation, or PBR, contractors have been asked to implement technological innovation with an emphasis on rapidly advancing toward site closure and minimizing long-term cost.

Branch technical expertise continues to be needed to set minimum performance expectations, evaluate proposed PBR approaches, and evaluate effectiveness of installed remediation systems.

Checklists are available upon request to assist in identifying appropriate standards for specific remedial technologies. Items within each checklist are referenced to more detailed information available in regulatory, Air Force and industry guidance.

Complex Sites Remediation

RSS\Remediation Strategies and Technologies for Complex Sites
The Environmental Restoration Technical Support Branch, or CZTE, focuses significant technical expertise and resources on complex sites where hydrogeological conditions or recalcitrant and persistent contaminants pose long-term and high-cost remediation challenges.

Remediation strategies, such as risk-based cleanup, long-term monitoring and natural attenuation, have been promoted to reduce Air Force environmental liability at many sites. The branch continues to provide support for innovative remedial actions based on risk management, alternative endpoints and, when appropriate, technical impracticability waivers.

Remediation Strategies and Technologies for Complex Sites Recently, the branch implemented a Complex Site Initiative, or CSI, to provide in-depth assessment of remediation strategies. A CSI evaluation determines feasibility of reaching remedial objectives based on existing technology and materially advancing toward site completion within 30 years.

Evaluations are tailored to the remedial status of a site and may include: identifying data gaps and needed characterization activities, evaluating success and failure of deployed remedial technologies, evaluating applicability of innovative technologies, and recommending remedial strategies, conceptual remediation designs and performance models.

A CSI evaluation can support contract acquisitions by developing sound technical rationales for performance objectives. Completed as part of Performance-Based Remediation surveillance, a CSI evaluation provides independent validation of a contractor's remedial strategy.

Exit Strategies

RSS Developing and Optimizing Exit Strategies
Cleanup actions at many sites have not performed as originally expected. To address this challenge, the Environmental Restoration Technical Support Branch, or CZTE, developed a systematic approach for building exit strategies to achieve site closure.

This systematic approach, begun in 2000 as the Remedial Process Optimization Initiative, uses existing monitoring data and observed changes in site conditions to understand response of contaminants to implemented corrective actions. Baseline performance models are developed to track progress.

Technical evaluations and benefit analyses of alternatives to clean site closure can inform decisions regarding contract scoping, exit-strategy optimization, risk mitigation and alternative remediation technologies. Branch subject matter experts and specialists provide an integrated multi-disciplinary team to support this approach.

Checklists are available upon request to assist in developing, implementing and reporting exit strategies. Items within the checklists are referenced to more detailed information available in regulatory, Air Force and industry guidance.

Green & Sustainable (GSR)

RSS Green and Sustainable Remediation (GSR) The Environmental Restoration Technical Support Branch, or CZTE, has led efforts to implement environmentally friendly and effective technologies to restore contaminated sites.

Remedy selection and optimization tools developed by the branch, in collaboration with other organizations, include the Sustainable Remediation Tool, or SRT, which evaluates remediation projects from a carbon-footprint perspective, and CleanSWEEP, for evaluating use of renewable energy sources.

Because these tools are being used both within and outside the Air Force, the branch has helped hundreds of cleanup practitioners in understanding and implementing these techniques.

In collaboration with other Federal agencies and intergovernmental organizations, the branch has also participated in establishment of guidelines and standards for green and sustainable remediation approaches.

Performance Monitoring

RSS Performance MonitoringThe Environmental Restoration Technical Support Branch, or CZTE, provides expertise in development and optimization of monitor networks for tracking performance of remedial actions.

In a Performance-Based Remediation contracting paradigm, effective performance monitoring is particularly important to validate progress in meeting performance objectives. Besides monitoring-network design and optimization, the branch provides guidance and technical support related to identification of performance indicators and metrics tailored to specific site conditions and remedial technologies. The branch also developed several widely-used monitoring tools in collaboration with academic and other professional organizations.

The Monitoring and Remediation Optimization System, or MAROS, software provides site managers with a tool for formulating appropriate long-term groundwater monitoring programs that can be implemented at lower costs. Geostatistical Temporal-Spatial, or GTS, software offers a set of statistical and geostatistical decision-logic tools for groundwater monitoring optimization.

Programs

RSS Additional Info

The Environmental Restoration Technical Support Branch, or CZTE, has developed fact sheets, guidance documents, technical checklists and remediation tools for use in selecting, designing, and optimizing remediation systems and strategies. Questions regarding restoration systems and strategies, including guidance documents, checklists and remediation tools, can be e-mailed to afcec.czte.rss@us.af.mil.

Remediation Tools

Site Cleanup Software

Green Remediation Focus

Screening Matrix

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