EE&G was retained by The Ritz Carlton Hotel Company, LLC to conduct an initial Site Assessment, which was used to better design the expanded soil excavation event needed to address the source of the free-floating product (FFP) observed in a tank excavation area.
Approximately 4,000-gallon steel UST was discovered at the eastern portion of the property, reportedly under former shuffleboard courts. The UST was found to be rusted and pitted & was partially filled with oily water. The UST was removed and position adjacent to the excavation by the onsite construction crew, and then covered with visqueen. EE&G visited the site and observed the open UST excavation, and stained soils were observed at the surface of the excavation. The location of the removed UST was reported to be in the area of the future underground pool and also was in the vicinity of the proposed dewatering activities which are part of the redevelopment of the site.
IRA activities were performed, including the source removal and stockpiling of impacted soils, and the skimming of free-floating product form the open excavation. Confirmation soils samples were collected from the excavation walls and characterization samples were collected from the stockpiled soils.
FFP was again observed in the excavation during the inspection and was pumped out. However, was evident that the surrounding soils are providing a source for FFP, and may impact future development and dewatering activities. Therefore, the objective of this initial Site Assessment was to evaluate the soil and groundwater quality surrounding the tank excavation area, which was used to better design the expanded soil removal task, and provide a baseline for the Site Assessment Report (SAR), required by the regulatory agency (Miami-Dade County DRER).
EE&G conducted a Soil and groundwater sampling event via the use of a direct-push drilling technique. Sampling was conducted in accordance with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), per Chapter 62-160, Florida Administrative Code (FAC).EE&G installed four temporary monitoring wells around the UST excavation area. The monitoring wells were used to assess for the presence of FFP. Additionally, an initial set of groundwater samples were analyzed for the following parameters: VOAs by EPA Method 8260, PAHs by EPA Method 8270, TPHs by Method FL-PRO.