Pullman Yards Train Maintenance Facility For GBA

S&ME, Inc. designed a lead remediation plan for the former Pullman Yards train maintenance facility in Atlanta. Sand-blasting to remove lead-based paint from train engines and railcars caused the site contamination. S&ME completed the plan for the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority (GEFA) and the Georgia Building Authority (GBA).

The project faced a number of time and cost constraints. Quick action was required to protect a nearby school and residential properties and avoid having the property listed as a “hazardous site.”  Another concern was the future use of nearby historic buildings and the threat to potential community development.  In fact, the state was negotiating a sale of the property at a price of more than $20 million.  Conditions, however, put this sale in jeopardy.

Our team developed a site-specific in-situ treatment process to meet these challenges.  Additionally, S&ME designed a safe mixing and delivery system for a phosphoric acid solution used in treating some 4,000 tons of sand. This system delivered a huge quantity of solution (totaling 140,000 gallons) in a relatively short time. It also delivered the solution safely (pH of the solution was a highly acidic 4.0) and evenly throughout the TSP/sand.

S&ME’s inventive design rendered the contaminated sand as “non-hazardous” for disposal purposes.  As verified by extensive sampling, our methodology produced a satisfactory reduction in the leachability of the lead from the sand.  The plan also allowed for faster treatment and removal of the lead-contaminated sand relative to conventional treatment and disposal, saving the client over a million dollars. To our knowledge, our unique approach was an original application of existing technologies.

Highlights

• The plan met remediation requirements of the State’s Environmental Protection Division’s Hazardous Site Response Act (EPD/HSRA) program