Abstract
The refined characterization of groundwater pollution is an important prerequisite for efficient and effective remediation. A high-resolution survey of a contaminated site in a chemical pesticide factory was carried out using non-invasive geophysical sensing technology. Modern electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) technology can rapidly identify and characterize the groundwater pollution plumes of organochlorine pesticides, which was demonstrated in this study by the significantly abnormal resistivity sensing in stratums and aquifers under the raw material tanks, production, and loading areas. The results were found to be highly consistent with the ERT sensing results achieved via incorporating borehole sampling and hydrochemical analysis. With high abnormal resistivity, the range of contamination within the profile was characterized on the meter level. We also unexpectedly found new pollution and explained its source. This study confirmed that the modern refined ERT method has a high feasibility and accuracy in characterizing the spatial distribution of organochlorine pesticide plumes in groundwater.
Highlights
Pesticides have been a great asset to modern agriculture since German scientists invented them in 1874 [1–3]
Organochlorine pesticides have the characteristic of strong persistence, which results from their long half-life and extremely slow attenuation rate in the environment, but they accumulate within organisms due to their low water solubility and high fat solubility [9,10]
Validated by the actual sampling and analytical data from six monitoring wells, we verified that electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) could characterize the pollution areas well
Summary
Pesticides have been a great asset to modern agriculture since German scientists invented them in 1874 [1–3]. Organochlorine pesticides have the characteristic of strong persistence, which results from their long half-life and extremely slow attenuation rate in the environment, but they accumulate within organisms due to their low water solubility and high fat solubility [9,10]. They enter the human body in various ways and accumulate in fat tissue [11–13]. Pesticides adsorbed on soil particles desorb and migrate under rainfall leaching These processes result in a more extensive pollution effect and pose a more severe challenge for environmental remediation and governance [25,26]. Pesticide safety has become a hot environmental issue of global concern [27,28]
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