Passive water-quality sampling at discrete vertical intervals to support the development of a conceptual site model at the Geneva Industries/Fuhrmann Energy Superfund Site, Houston, Texas, 2023

The Geneva Industries/Fuhrmann Energy Superfund Site (hereinafter referred to as "the Site") in southeastern Houston, Texas was historically used as a site for petroleum exploration and petrochemical production and is currently (2024) inactive. Previous remedies to clean up the contaminated site included the excavation and off-site disposal of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-contaminated soils, capping the Site and surrounding it with a perimeter slurry wall to contain remaining constituents in the soil and groundwater, the recovery and treatment of trichloroethylene (TCE)-contaminated groundwater, and institutional controls (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], 2018). A conceptual site model (CSM) does not yet exist and is needed to (1) understand how site conditions have changed since earlier investigations; (2) re-evaluate contaminants of concerns at the Site; and (3) determine whether additional remedial actions are needed. A five-phase approach was proposed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to obtain the data needed to develop a CSM. As the third phase in that approach, the USGS in cooperation with the EPA, collected groundwater samples at discrete vertical sampling intervals from four wells, former recovery well RW-1R and monitoring wells MW-24, MW-101, and MW-102, using three types of passive samplers at the Site in September 2023.