Launch Ready! High-Resolution Site Characterization and the Expedited Remediation of a Multi-Acre Chlorinated Volatile Organic Compound Plume at NASA’s Launch Complex 39B

Geosyntec teamed with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to restore groundwater resources and protect sensitive aquatic habitats at Launch Complex 39B (LC39B), a National Historic Site located within the John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on the east coast of Florida (Figure 1). The goal of this project was to remediate chlorinated volatile organic compound (CVOC) impacts in groundwater that had the potential to discharge to the sensitive habitat surrounding LC39B and to complete the remediation before NASA’s Artemis Program’s Space Launch System missions began. The Geosyntec NASA team met this goal by developing a robust Conceptual Site Model (CSM) using High Resolution Site Characterization (HRSC), using the CSM to design a multifaceted and highly specialized air sparge (AS) system to remediate the groundwater, and installing, operating, and optimizing the AS system to achieve the Corrective Action Objective (CAOs). The CAOs were achieved after only 2 years of AS system operation, which has significantly reduced the CVOC concentrations and mass present in the groundwater and mitigated the potential discharge of impacted groundwater to the surrounding sensitive aquatic habitat, all before the Artemis Program’s launches at LC39B.