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Hydrocarbon Dispersion in Ground Water: Significance and Characteristics a
Author(s) -
Osgood John O.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
groundwater
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.84
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1745-6584
pISSN - 0017-467X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-6584.1974.tb03053.x
Subject(s) - water table , geology , groundwater , dispersion (optics) , hydrogeology , sedimentary rock , facies , waves and shallow water , hydrocarbon , table (database) , geotechnical engineering , water well , clastic rock , hydrology (agriculture) , petrology , mineralogy , geochemistry , geomorphology , chemistry , oceanography , physics , optics , organic chemistry , structural basin , computer science , data mining
Ground‐water contamination resulting from hydrocarbon spills is a significant problem which has received little attention. Over two hundred spills to the ground have been investigated during the last two and a half years by the Ground Water Section of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources. Explosions, injuries, damaged water supplies and other serious consequences have forced the recognition that these cases are important. Since Federal regulations are unsatisfactory in preventing spills to the ground, it is clearly the responsibility of the State to develop meaningful controls. Hydrocarbon dispersion is essentially a shallow ground‐water problem. The hydrogeologic characteristics at the spill site are critical in determining dispersion once the hydrocarbon has reached the water table. The hydrocarbon is largely contained on top of the water table. In unconsolidated deposits or in fill material, the shallow ground‐water flow system and the direction of hydrocarbon dispersion will coincide. In sedimentary rocks the orientation of the rock becomes critical. When the dip is shallow enough to contain the water table, dispersion may either coincide with the major flow direction or may diverge from it where facies changes or significant changes in packing are encountered. Dispersion will parallel the strike of the rock in more steeply dipping rocks rather than the major ground‐water flow direction. Lateral movement will be controlled by jointing and fracturing. Solution channels and fractures exert the major controlling influence on heavily cemented soluble limestones. In tightly cemented clastics, crystalline rocks and less soluble carbonates, contaminant flows on top of the water table in fractures. Hydrocarbons may be imprisoned where solution channels and fractures do not intercept other openings within the water‐table plane. Recovery programs for most hydrocarbon spills are complex. Larger cases receive the greatest attention; however, smaller ones are actually more significant since they are more common. Recovery costs are expensive and complete removal is extremely time‐consuming. Better maintenance and emergency response plans must be developed, even by small users. Federal and State governments must recognize the problem as being serious and must develop revolving product recovery funds to be used in ground‐water cases. Lastly, ground‐water spills must be handled by ground‐water specialists. Experimentation by those who lack the proper qualifications can prove very costly.