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Monitoring the Effectiveness of Measures to Contain the Primary Sources of Mercury Pollution on the Site of a Former Chlor-Akali Plant in Kazakhstan
Citation:
Ilyushchenko, M., R. Kamberov, L. Yakovleva, T. Tanton, S. Ullrich, AND P. M. RANDALL. Monitoring the Effectiveness of Measures to Contain the Primary Sources of Mercury Pollution on the Site of a Former Chlor-Akali Plant in Kazakhstan. Presented at The Sixth International Conference on Remediation of Chlorinated and Recalcitrant Compounds, Monterey, CA, May 19 - 22, 2008.
Impact/Purpose:
To monitor the effectiveness of remedial measures to contain mercury pollution at the site of a former mercury cell chlor-alkali plant in Pavlodar, Kazakhstan.
Description:
An extensive sampling campaign was conducted in 2005-2007 to monitor the effectiveness of remedial measures to contain mercury pollution at the site of a former mercury cell chlor-alkali plant in Pavlodar, Kazakhstan. Containment measures consisted of cutoff walls and capping of the primary mercury sources. There are concerns in the northern boundary of the Pavlodar Chemical Plant of possible changes of the groundwater plume direction and/or upward movement of mercury-polluted groundwater to the surface in the pastures of the depression next to Lake Balkyldak; high levels of mercury contamination in Lake Balkyldak, as well as the fish within it; and high levels of mercury-contamination in waste lagoons near the lake. Initial results show that where there was a high hydraulic gradient in the soil (i.e. at the waste lagoons adjacent to Lake Balkyaldak), there is an observable beneficial effect from installing of a cutoff wall and capping of the waste lagoons with the source of pollution being contained. The beneficial effects of isolating and capping the large primary source of mercury pollution below the former mercury cell chlor-alkali factory site can not so easily be observed. The mercury plume from the factory site appears to be advancing as modeled, with Hg arriving at the next two bore holes in the path of the plume. However during a 3 year monitoring program there were quite high systematic changes in mercury concentration in many of the wells that cannot be readily explained by the hydraulic properties of the soil or the groundwater pollution models. It is considered that these changes are most likely the result of fluctuations in groundwater levels during the study period influencing borehole "effective" sampling zone within the plume. This makes long term monitoring of changes in soil water mercury concentration and plume dispersion difficult.