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INVESTIGATION OF FAILURE MECHANISMS AND MIGRATION OF INDUSTRIAL CHEMICALS AT WILSONVILLE, ILLINOIS
Citation:
Herzog, B. L. AND R. A. Griffin. INVESTIGATION OF FAILURE MECHANISMS AND MIGRATION OF INDUSTRIAL CHEMICALS AT WILSONVILLE, ILLINOIS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/M-89/033 (NTIS 90-26-571), 1990.
Impact/Purpose:
information
Description:
In late 1981, ground water contamination was discovered in a monitoring well at the Earthline disposal facility near Wilsonville, Illinois. This meant that organic chemicals had migrated at a rate of 100 to 1000 times the rate predicted when the site was given its permit in 1976. The Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS) then conducted a 3-yr, multidisciplinary study to determine why the site failed to perform as predicted. Geology, hydrogeology, geochemistry, engineering geology, and x-ray mineralogy were disciplines used in the study of this site. Postulated failure mechanisms included migration through previously undetermined (unmapped) permeable zones, subsidence of an underground mine, organic chemical/clay interactions, acid mine drainage/clay interactions, and trench cover settlement and erosion. The study concluded that the primary reason for the rapid migration was the presence of previously undetermined permeable zones that' included fractured and jointed glacial till formations. The inaccurate predictions were caused by the use of laboratory-determined hydraulic conductivity values, which did not adequately measure the effects of fractures and joints in the transit time calculations. Field-measured hydraulic conductivity values were generally 10 to 1000 times greater than their laboratory measured counterparts, thus largely accounting for the discrepancy between predicted and actual migration rates in the transit time calculations. This however was compounded by the burial of liquid wastes and by trench covers that allowed excess infiltration to enter the trenches. Organic chemical/clay interactions may also have exacerbated the problem in areas where liquid organic wastes were buried.