Applying GORE-TEX technology for rapid contaminant assessments at Fort Gordon, Georgia

Abstract

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of the Army at Fort Gordon, Georgia, deployed GORE1 adsorbent samplers along creeks and floodplains to rapidly assess potential contamination at abandoned facilities and in adjacent surface water. The samplers provide screening-level data to determine the presence or absence of volatile organic compounds, semi-volatile organic compounds, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and were deployed in saturated creek and floodplain sediments adjacent to four abandoned waste-disposal/warfare-training sites. Fuelrelated compounds, not solvents, are the most prevalent organic compounds detected along segments of McCoys Creek adjacent to the 19th Street landfill; South Prong Creek adjacent to the South Prong Creek waste-disposal area; an unnamed tributary to Butler Creek adjacent to the old hospital landfill; and the Brier Creek floodplain adjacent to the Patterson anti-tank range. All 37 samplers deployed in these assessments had detections of total petroleum hydrocarbons ranging from just above 3 (laboratory method detection level) to 344 micrograms per liter. Detections of octane that ranged from 1 to 7.6 micrograms per liter were common in all assessments, except for South Prong Creek. Calculated concentrations of benzene are at or just above the National Primary Drinking Water Standard maximum contaminant level for all samplers deployed in the floodplain at the Patterson anti-tank range. The highest calculated concentration of a specific fuel-related compound was for toluene collected at one sampling site on McCoys Creek adjacent to the 19th Street landfill, but the concentration was below the National Primary Drinking Water Standard. These results are being used by Fort Gordon environmental compliance personnel to decide if further assessments are needed at these abandoned waste-disposal/warfare-training sites