Correlation of BTEX levels and toxicity of condensate contaminated groundwater

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:372529

Headley, J ^[1]; Goudey, S ^[2]; Birkholz, D ^[3]; Hardisty, P ^[4]

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1. National Hydrology Research Inst., Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Canada)
2. Hydroqual Lab. Ltd., Calgary, Alberta (Canada)
3. EnviroTest Labs., Edmonton, Alberta (Canada)
4. Komex International Ltd., Calgary, Alberta (Canada)

The concentration of BTEX was determined for 60 groundwater samples collected from 6 gas plants in Western Canada, using conventional purge-and-trap GC/MS procedures. The gas plants were selected to cover different types of operations with different amine process chemicals employed for the sweetening of the raw sour-gas condensates. Aliquots of the ground water samples were subjected to toxicity screening tests, specifically, (a) bacterial luminescence (microtox) ; (b) daphnia mortality and (c) fathead minnow mortality. For the toxicity tests, sample handling procedures were developed to minimize the loss of volatile organics during the experiments. To account for possible losses, the levels of BTEX were monitored at the start and upon completion of these tests. The results indicated that the toxicity of the groundwater was in general, well correlated to the concentration of BTEX (primarily xylene). Approximately 5% of the samples, however, were observed to be toxic although the concentration of BTEX were below the method detection limit (1 {micro}g/1). Thiophenic volatile organics were implicated for the latter. Based on the laboratory results, the remediation of BTEX is expected to correlate with the removal of the toxicity of the groundwater. These findings are of direct relevance to present technologies employed for remediation of ground water at the Sourgas plants.

• OSTI ID: 372529
• Report Number(s): CONF-9511137--; ISBN 1-880611-03-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

03 NATURAL GAS
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
56 BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
APPLIED STUDIES
ALKYLATED AROMATICS
BENZENE
BIOASSAY
BIOLOGICAL INDICATORS
CANADA
DAPHNIA
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
FATHEAD MINNOW
GROUND WATER
NATURAL GAS PROCESSING PLANTS
PHOTOSYNTHETIC BACTERIA
REMEDIAL ACTION
SENSITIVITY
TOLUENE
TOXICITY
WATER POLLUTION
XYLENES