Delineation of contaminant plume for an inorganic contaminated site using electrical resistivity tomography: comparison with direct-push technique

Integration of hydrochemical and induced polarization analysis for leachate localization in a municipal landfill

Landfills have been identified as a significant concern to the surrounding surface and groundwater ecosystem because of the discharge of leachate. To tackle the uncertain localization of the contamination plume due to low sampling densities, a combination of hydrochemical analysis and induced polarization survey (IP) is employed to characterize the leachate in a municipal landfill. The polarization effect in the contaminated area is significantly higher than expected for landfill sites, but relatively low chargeability zones (<100 mV/V) indicating the distribution of leachate are observed inside high conductivity (>600 mS/m) areas. With reliable geophysical results confirmed by similar formation factors from both field and laboratory data, the abnormal high polarization effect is influenced by installed steel sheet piles next to the survey cable. In addition, we successfully identify linear relationship between the geophysical responses and dominant inorganic conservative compounds (Cl^- and Na⁺) from the leachate plume. The gentle variations of borehole chemical parameters show that the plume is not affected by a continuous contamination source any more, indicating that the steel sheet pile effectively cut off the contamination from the leachate tanks. In conclusion, the integration of IP and hydrochemical data is an excellent way to locate contaminated zones and monitor the behaviors of leachate plume in the landfill.

Delimiting Pig Slurry Affected Subsurface Areas by Combining Geophysical and Geochemical Techniques

In Spain, livestock farming is a significant activity area that generates substantial revenues and essential jobs. However, the actual impact that this intensive activity might have on the environment is not entirely understood. Moreover, coastal aquifers are subjected to a significant environmental pressure due to nearby growing population, intensive agriculture, and livestock farming. In this work, three representative pig slurry ponds, under semiarid conditions, were studied using different techniques to evaluate the subsurface conditions in terms of pH, electrical conductivity, salts, and nitrate content. The electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) technique was employed in this study, which provides electrical resistivity values from the subsurface materials and fluids. These electrical resistivity values were compared to data obtained from geochemical analyses to derive their relationships and establish the pig slurry-affected subsurface area. Thus, ERT-based lower electrical resistivity values were associated with higher salts concentrations and nitrate content. ERT values indicated a near-surface affected by slurry infiltration that coincided with the increase of geochemical values obtained from sample analyses. Additionally, Spearman’s correlation was used to evaluate the correlation between electrical resistivity data and the physical-chemical properties of soil. The most important pollutant accumulation mainly occurs in the two-meter depth. Therefore, the risk of slurry ponds affecting deep aquifers is limited in the studied area. Finally, this study proves a complete, affordable, and scalable methodology application to livestock residue storage facilities.

Improving Long-term Monitoring of Contaminated Groundwater at Sites where Attenuation-based Remedies are Deployed

This study presents an effective approach to tackle the challenge of long-term monitoring of contaminated groundwater sites where remediation leaves residual contamination in the subsurface. Traditional long-term monitoring of contaminated groundwater sites focuses on measuring contaminant concentrations and is applicable to sites where contaminant mass is removed or degraded to a level below the regulatory standard. The traditional approach is less effective at sites where risk from metals or radionuclides continues to exist in the subsurface after remedial goals are achieved. We propose a long-term monitoring strategy for this type of waste site that focuses on measuring the hydrological and geochemical parameters that control attenuation or remobilization of contaminants while de-emphasizing contaminant-concentration measurements. We demonstrate how this approach would be more effective than traditional long-term monitoring, using a site in South Carolina, USA, where groundwater is contaminated by several radionuclides. A comprehensive enhanced attenuation remedy has been implemented at the site to minimize discharge of contamination to surface water. The immobilization of contaminants occurs in three locations by manipulation of hydrological and geochemical parameters, as well as by natural attenuation processes. Deployment of our proposed long-term monitoring strategy will combine subsurface and surface measurements using spectroscopic tools, geophysical tools, and sensors to monitor the parameters controlling contaminant attenuation. The advantage of this approach is that it will detect the potential for contaminant remobilization from engineered and natural attenuation zones, allowing potential adverse changes to be mitigated before contaminant attenuation is reversed.

Bayesian Monitoring Design for Streambed Heat Tracing: Numerical Simulation and Sandbox Experiments

Heat tracing methods have been widely employed for subsurface characterization. Nevertheless, there were very few studies regarding the optimal monitoring design for heat tracing in heterogeneous streambeds. In this study, we addressed this issue by proposing an efficient optimal design framework to collect the most informative diurnal temperature signal for Bayesian estimation of streambed hydraulic conductivities. The data worth (DW) was measured by the expected relative entropy between the prior and posterior distributions of the conductivity field. An adaptively refined Gaussian process surrogate was employed to alleviate the computational burden, resulting in at least three orders of magnitude of speed-up. The applicability of the optimal experimental design framework was evaluated by both numerical and sandbox experimental cases. Results showed that the most informative locations centered in the transition zones among the main patterns of the hydraulic conductivity field, while the most informative times centered in a short period after the minimum/maximum temperature appeared. With the fixed number of measurements, extending the calibration period was more beneficial than increasing the monitoring frequency in improving the estimation results. To our best knowledge, this work is the first study on Bayesian monitoring design for streambed characterization with the heat tracing method. The method and results can provide guidance on selecting monitoring strategies under budget-limited conditions.