TY - JOUR AU - LUTZ, AXEL AU - JACOBS, PATRICK AU - DIESNER, KAI AU - RATH, GERNOT PY - 2013/12/20 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Long-term groundwater investigation on a large refinery site in Northeast Germany: Evaluating Natural Attenuation JF - Águas Subterrâneas JA - R. Águas Subter. VL - 0 IS - 0 SE - Anais de Eventos DO - UR - https://aguassubterraneas.abas.org/asubterraneas/article/view/27518 SP - AB - <p>At the PCK refinery site in the Northeast of Germany mineral oil processing has<br />resulted in a large-scale contamination of the shallow aquifer with aliphatic petroleum<br />hydrocarbons (TPH) and with aromatic compounds (BTEX) and the fuel oxygenate<br />methyl tert.-butyl ether.<br />On a local scale the aquifer is contaminated with nitrate and ammonia stemming from a<br />fertilizer production facility on site. To prevent contaminants from being transport off<br />site with the groundwater a hydraulic containment system is in operation already since<br />the early 1970ies. Systematic groundwater monitoring was implemented at the same<br />time. After the reunion of both German states the groundwater investigation program<br />was intensified in 1994 on the site was installed one of the Ecological Large-Scale<br />Projects which were installed in the former GDR to appropriately handle the most<br />heavily contaminated large industrial sites. The long-term groundwater investigation ist<br />still carried out today.<br />The largest national collaborative research programme on monitored natural attenuation<br />in Germany, KORA, included the site as a reference for the development and testing of<br />innovative approaches to the investigation and evaluation of the contamination situation<br />and to the quantification and the stimulation of the natural attenuation potential. Some<br />of the methodological approaches are still used in the current groundwater monitoring.<br />Moreover, new conceptual approaches were included with regard to the groundwater<br />monitoring procedure and to the data evaluation. They are used for the continuous<br />optimization of the monitoring network and programme.<br />The groundwater monitoring basically aims to the following targets:<br />1. To perform a qualified monitoring to assess the contamination situation and the<br />effectiveness of current remediation and containment, as required by the competent<br />authorities.<br />2. To prove that natural attenuation processes are taking place as a prerequisite to the<br />economically favourable realization of an MNA-based remedial strategy, as<br />supported by the re-financing entities.<br />3. To provide PCK with monitoring results that can be used to develop source<br />remediation strategies for source reduction using enhanced natural attenuation<br />(ENA).</p> ER -