Electrical Geophysical Monitoring of Organic Waste Contamination

Abstract

Olive oil production in the Mediterranean area is a major industry, with significant impact in the economy of producer countries. During the production of extra virgin olive oil, a substantial amount of waste is produced and is improperly disposed. since no regulation for the environmental deposition of olive oil mill waste exists. Thus, there is an urgent need for the development of methods that will allow efficient monitor waste management processes, and enable rapid recognition of environmental degradation incidents. The most common disposal practice involves unrestricted damping of the olive oil mill waste in open evaporation ponds, leading to significant degradation of the environment including groundwater and surface waters. Geophysical methods could be used to monitor olive oil waste management processes, and identify olive oil waste plumes right at their inception times. We applied a series of electrical geophysical measurements at an olive oil mill waste (OOMW) site in western Crete to test their applicability as monitoring aids. Our results suggest that electrical methods are very efficient in accurately delineating young OOMW plumes due to their conductive signature.