An Emergency Hydrogeologic Evaluation of a Chemical Dump Site

Abstract

In latter 1979, approximately 200 drums of assorted waste chemicals were dumped in a rural area of southern New Jersey. The spill site is underlain by a water‐table aquifer which is the source of potable water throughout the general area. Emergency response personnel of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) began a surface cleanup soon after the dumping, and requested Department geologists to investigate the dump site. An integrated approach combining drilling and sampling, downhole logging, surface resistivity, ground‐water conductivity and laboratory analyses for the common organic solvents was used to promptly assess ground‐water contamination and the controlling hydrogeology. Using routine hydrogeologic techniques and standard field equipment, within four months the emergency spill had been assessed by Department geologists and the outlines of a ground‐water decontamination program were evident.

Sludge Effect on Groundwater Quality

“…Table 1. The sorption features of the glacial outwash deposits have been described in [1], as has been the influence of anthropo-pression on the underground water in [9,[13][14][15]17] as well as problems connected with heavy metals in sewage, their migration and forms of occurrence [2,3,17,19]. Data derived from piezometers PI, PII, PIII and a test well (IK), which is localized in the north of the area, have been used for the analysis of variation in the chemical composition of underground water resulting from the sludge fertilization.…”