VB997^® soil Used for Soil Bioremediation
Houston Refinery

In June 1999, about 20,000 gallons of lube oil was spilled onto the ground surrounding several storage tanks at a refinery in Houston, Texas.

As the spill occurred at Tank 99, oil flowed downhill past a pump pit and between Tank 98 and Tank 112.

Samples of the clay soil were taken from each of the three locations on June 30 and evaluated at the Core Environmental Laboratory and Sam Houston State University's TRIES Laboratory.

At Tank 99, TPH levels were a whopping 130,000 ppm. At the pump pit, TPH was 26,800 ppm. The EPA required TPH to be brought below 10,000 ppm.

Conventional wisdom suggested that the only way to successfully remediate this site would have been to scrape away the contaminated soil and haul it to a land farm or incinerator.

But a week later, on July 6, VB997^® was applied to the site. After white rock had been moved away from the contaminated area, VB997^® was tilled into the contaminated soil at the rate of one pound per cubic yard. For the duration of the project, soil moisture was maintained at 15 percent.

Follow-up samples taken on August 6 showed the remarkable changes that took place. TPH at Tank 99 was reduced nearly 95 percent to 6,650 ppm.

All three locations were successfully brought below 10,000 ppm in just 30 days, low enough to be acceptable under TNRCC guidelines.