Abstract
The Milano Metropolitan Area (named FUA Functional Urban Area) has a history of heavy industrialization causing a large portion of area being affected by significant diffuse contaminations of soil and groundwater. Among the various contaminants, chlorinated solvents (e.g. tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene) are the most used in industrial processes and represent the major cause of groundwater pollution within the Functional Urban Area. The background diffuse contamination generated by these pollutants is so persistent and widely spread that makes extremely challenging to identify the sources responsible for their release. Such background contamination originates from the overlapping of both known sources (Point Sources), associated to specific high release of contamination, and unknown small sources (Multiple Point Sources), clustered within a large area, whose release is low but persistent. The aim of this paper is to present the methodology, developed within the framework of the AMIIGA Project (Interreg Central Europe Grant N° CE32), which combines multivariate statistical analysis and groundwater numerical modeling in order to separate the point sources (PS) contribution from the background diffuse contamination, and supporting Public Authorities in the management of groundwater remediation. A methodological work-flow is proposed guiding local and regional Institutions to use the methodology (i.e. exploratory analysis of big dataset, simulation of groundwater flow and transport, multivariate and geostatistical analysis) to assess Diffuse Pollution Background Levels (DPBLs) in large urbanized areas.
Highlights
Groundwater contamination by chlorinated solvents is a critical issue (Alamdar et al, 2019) in functional urban areas (FUAs, OECD, 2012)
The results shown in previous paragraphs confirm that the Milano FUA cannot be managed as a homogeneous groundwater body
In the Milano FUA, where the groundwater was historically interested by present mainly due to tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and TCE contaminations from both point sources (PSs) and multiple PSs (MPSs) from the surface, a presence of many factories and chemical plants has to be considered
Summary
Groundwater contamination by chlorinated solvents is a critical issue (Alamdar et al, 2019) in functional urban areas (FUAs, OECD, 2012). Because of the intense industrial and urban development during the last postindustrial years, in FUA there are a number of unknown small sources releasing a low contaminant mass These multiple PSs (MPSs) may originate from sewage system leakages, small. In Italy, the Italian legislative decree (IT-Decree 3/04/2006.n. 152, 2006, which enforce the Water Framework Directive) defines the anthropogenic diffuse pollution as the “chemical, physical, and biological alteration of environmental matrixes and contaminations determined by diffuse sources and not linked to a PS,” and it designates regional authorities to recognize and to enact actions when diffuse contamination is identified Because of this legislative demand, there is the need of scientific-based tools as support for recognizing areas affected by anthropogenic diffuse pollution and identifying proper diffuse pollution background levels (DPBLs) (i.e., background diffuse pollution level not attributable to specific PSs)
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