SMALL-SCALE FIELD EVALUATIONS OF LAND TREATMENT
OF AN OILY HAZARDOUS WASTE
Fred M. Pfeffer, Research Chemist
Robert S. Kerr Environmental Research Laboratory
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Ada, Oklahoma 74820
George Myers, Environmental Coordinator
Sun Refining and Marketing Company
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74102
Raymond C. Loehr, Professor
Agricultural and Civil Engineering Department
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853
Don F. Kincannon, Professor
Civil Engineering Department
Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, Oklahoma 74074
INTRODUCTION
Beginning in 1980, the EPA provided technical assistance to Sun Refining & Marketing Company
in Sun's efforts to renovate a waste disposal site at Mounds, Oklahoma near Tulsa. The Mounds
site was a 130-acre improperly managed storage facility containing approximately 220,000 bbl of
sludges thought to be predominantly of refinery origin. In 1980, the Mounds facility was a prime
Superfund candidate for the State of Oklahoma because of the magnitude of the problem and because
the State had not been able to force remedial action by the original owner/operator (not Sun). However, Sun volunteered as a "friend of the Court" to clean up the site using land treatment as the
predominant mechanism. At this time the EPA was conducting research in hazardous waste land
treatment, and this was the basis for EPA's interest in providing technical assistance in the remedial
process at Mounds.
In December 1980 EPA staff toured the Mounds facility. The site contained a series of seven
unlined holding lagoons. To the west of the lagoons was a diked area badly deteriorated by heavy
application of oily sludges. To the east was a 20-acre area inundated with liquid sludges being pumped
from a lagoon in an effort to draw down the stored wastes. In another area, approximately 100
buried, unlabelled drums had been unearthed, containing unknown materials. A second site visit in
August 1981 revealed that the owner/operator had attempted to bury all but two of the lagoons by
razing the earthen dikes inward into the contents of the lagoons. This magnified the problem by
producing a large amount of oil-contaminated soil as well as creating a 20-acre area of oil seeps and
very unstable surface conditions.
Table I shows that for a two-year period beginning in July 1981 the Mounds operation consisted
of two parallel efforts. Beginning with Court approval for site clean-up. Sun performed extensive
testing and preparation leading to initiation of land treatment in June 1983. With EPA clearance to
provide technical assistance, sampling and analyses was performed to characterize the lagooned wastes.
Beginning in June 1982, EPA and Cornell University conducted pilot-scale treatability studies in field
plots established in Ada, Oklahoma and Ithaca, New York. Prior to the initiation of land treatment
at Mounds, EPA provided recommendations to Sun based on the results of waste characterization
and field studies. EPA assistance during full-scale land treatment consists of collection and analysis
of soil core samples during the life of the land treatment operation.
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