Understanding the nature of NAPL pollution improving analysis of groundwater data
Remediation of sites containing nonaqueous (NAPLs), phase liquids especially those which are more dense than water, is often hindered by our inability to accurately characterize the nature and location of the pollution source. Site investigations and the determination of a responsible party are further complicated by the presence of multiple contaminant sources. This paper presents graphical tools that can be used to increase our understanding of the nature of a pollutant source at NAPL spill sites. These methods use knowledge of the chemical characteristics of the organic phase pollutants and transport properties to infer the location and type of NAPL sources. Groundwater concentrations from several sites contaminated by NAPLs have been collected and incorporated into two types of plots to differentiate among NAPL types. Trilinear plots illustrate correlations among three chemical species in the groundwater. Benzene, toluene, and combined ethyl benzene plus xylene (BTEX) concentrations for a number of different NAPL sources are plotted to aid in the identification of specific source types. Multivariate plots are also developed to illustrate correlations among the relative concentrations when there are more than three species of interest. The addition of naphthalene data to BTEX concentrations used in the trilinear plots enhances our ability to use graphical approaches for a more thorough site characterization. A case study is included to illustrate that relative concentrations of several soluble components can be incorporated into multivariate plots to differentiate between groundwater contaminated with gasoline and coal tar phases.
- OSTI ID:
- 416863
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-951023--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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