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Soil‐Gas Signatures from Volatile Chlorinated Solvents: Borden Field Experiments
Author(s) -
Rivett Michael O.
Publication year - 1995
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.1745-6584.1995.tb00265.x
Subject(s) - vadose zone , plume , water table , soil gas , capillary fringe , groundwater , hydrology (agriculture) , contamination , soil water , environmental science , soil science , geology , environmental chemistry , chemistry , geotechnical engineering , meteorology , ecology , physics , biology
Field experiments have been conducted at the Borden research site to evaluate the widely applied soil‐gas survey method. In particular, the ability of surveys to delineate DNAPL chlorinated solvent sources and associated ground‐water plumes has been investigated. Field experiments indicated that dissolved‐phase plumes from DNAPL pools or residual located about a meter or more below the water table are unlikely to be directly detected by soil‐gas surveys. Soil‐gas plumes observed at real sites are attributed to volatilization of source material in the vadose zone and consequent formation of very shallow interface zone ground‐water contamination that is able to partition to the soil gas as it transports downgradient. The distribution of DNAPL sources and dissolved‐phase plumes deeper in the ground‐water zone may often bear little resemblance to the shallow interface zone ground‐water plume above, and hence the location of this deeper contamination will remain highly difficult to identify by soil‐gas surveys. Field observations are confirmed with simple analytical 1‐D diffusion modeling and the implications of the results to the practice of soil‐gas surveys at contaminated sites indicated.