• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.9-18
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• 2007

Soil vapor extraction (SVE) is an effective and cost efficient method of removing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and petroleum hydrocarbons from unsaturated soils. However, soil vapor extraction becomes ineffective in soils with low gas permeability, for example soils with air permeabilities less than 1 Darcy. Incorporating PVDs in an SVE system can extend the effectiveness of SVE to lower permeability soils by shortening the air flow-paths and ultimately expediting contaminant removal. The objective of the research described herein was to effectively incorporate PVDs into a SVE remediation system. The test results show that the gas permeability was evaluated for four different equivalent diameters, increasing the equivalent diameter results in a decrease in the calculated gas permeability. It was found that the porosity for the dry condition was greater than that of the wet condition and will allow flow rate for the same vacuum flow, offering a low resistance to the air flow.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.60-71
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• 2007

Groundwater from public wells was monitored during one year with two month interval for hydrogeochemical parameters and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) as environmental tracers in Jeju Island. Concentrations of major cations and $SiO_2$ show variation less than 10% whereas $NO_3$ and dissolved oxygen (DO) showed larger variation though DO variation did not change oxic or suboxic condition. $NO_3$ concentration has no consistent seasonal pattern with the largest variation of 35%. Groundwater ages determined by CFCs became temporarily younger by 5 years in October for groundwater with ages of 15 to 25 years, which can be attributed to infiltrating water in rainy season. Compared to air temperature, groundwater temperature has much smaller variation with no phase difference, which can be accounted for by a two-component model consisting of infiltrating water from surface and deeper groundwater with negligible temperature variation. The relatively small variation in groundwater age and temperature indicates that groundwater recharge through fast flow-paths is much smaller compared with basal groundwater in terms of aquifer storage.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.42-58
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• 2001

In order to protect the environment from waste disposal activities, the prediction of the flux and flow paths of the contaminants from underground facilities should be assessed as accurately as possible. Especially, the prediction of the pathways and travel times of the nuclides from high level radioactive wastes in a deep repository to biosphere is one of the primary tasks for assessing the ultimate safety and performance of the repository. Since the contaminants are mainly transported with groundwater along the discontinuities developed within rock mass, the characteristics of groundwater flow through discontinuities is important for the prediction of contaminant fates as well as safety assessment of a repository. In this study, the actual fracture network could be effectively generated based on in situ data by separating geometric parameter and hydraulic parameter. The calculated anisotropic hydraulic conductivity was applied to a 3D porous medium model to calculate the path flow and travel time of the large studied area with the consideration of the complex topology in the area. Using the model, the pathways and travel times for groundwater were analyzed. From this study, it was concluded that the suggested techniques and procedures for predicting the pathways and travel times of groundwater from underground facilities to biosphere is acceptable and those can be applied to the safety assessment of a repository for radioactive wastes.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.61-76
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• 2011

This study was objected to provide suggestions for best management practices to restore the cultural and historical values of the wells in Palaces as well as their water qualities. Water resources in the five Palaces in Seoul Metropolitan, including Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, Changgyeonggung, Jongmyo Shrine, and Deoksugung, were surveyed for their physical flows and chemical compositions from April to July in 2010. Ground waters in most wells were found at depths within 5 m from the ground surface, showing typical water-table aquifer systems. Hydraulic gradients indicate water resources in Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung, and Changgyeonggung flowing toward south, and toward east in Deoksugung area. Especially, water-level fluctuation data at S-10 in Deoksugung implied the influence of groundwater discharge facility. In Jongmyo Shrine, water was not detected in wells, indicating the water level was lower than the well depth. Based on the water chemistry and stable isotope analyses, water resources and their qualities appeared to be formed by the water-rock interaction along the groundwater paths. S-10 (Deoksugung) and S-14 (Changgyeonggung) samples were contaminated with nitrate ($NO_3$) in levels of higher than Korean drinking water standard, 10 mg/L as $NO_3$-N, but once in four sampling campaigns. In the situation that water resources in Palaces still maintain natural characteristics, the materials that will be used for the restoration and improvement of the Palace water supplies should be carefully selected not to disturb the natural integrity. In addition, because the wells are located in the center of metropolitan area, a systematic monitoring should be applied to detect and to manage the potential impacts of underground construction and various pollution sources.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.137-142
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• 1997

At the tailings dam of the disused Brukunga pyrite mine in South Australia, reaction of groundwater with the tailings causes the formation and discharge of sulphuric acid. There is a need to improve remediation efforts by decreasing groundwater flow through the tailings dam. Geophysical methods have been investigated to determine whether they can be used to characterise variations in depth to watertable and map preferred groundwater flow paths. Three methods were used: transient electromagnetic (TEM) soundings, direct current (DC) soundings and profiling, and self potential (SP) profiling. The profiling methods were used to map the areal extent of a given response, while soundings was used to determine the variation in response with depth. The results of the geophysical surveys show that the voltages measured with SP profiling are small and it is hard to determine any preferred channels of groundwater flow from SP data alone. Results obtained from TEM and DC soundings, show that the DC method is useful for determining layer boundaries at shallow depths (less than about 10 m), while the TEM method can resolve deeper structures. Joint use of TEM and DC data gives a more complete and accurate geoelectric section. The TEM and DC measurements have enabled accurate determination of depth to groundwater. For soundings centred at piezometers, this depth is consistent with the measured watertable level in the corresponding piezometer. A map of the watertable level produced from all the TEM and DC soundings at the site shows that the shallowest level is at a depth of about 1 m, and occurs at the southeast of the site, while the deepest watertable level (about 17 m) occurs at the northwest part of the site. The results indicate that a possible source of groundwater occurs at the southeast area of the dam, and the aquifer thickness varies between 6 and 13 m. A map of the variation of resistivity of the aquifer has also been produced from the TEM and DC data. This map shows that the least resistive (i.e., most conductive) section of the aquifer occurs in the northeast of the site, while the most resistive part of the aquifer occurs in the southeast. These results are interpreted to indicate a source of fresh (resistive) groundwater in the southeast of the site, with a possible further source of conductive groundwater in the northeast.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2001.03a
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• pp.405-410
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• 2001

Bioremediation is a degradation process of existing organic contaminants in soils and groundwater by indigenous or inoculated microorganisms. This process can provide economical solution as well as safe and effective alternative in remediation technologies. However, it has been suggested that the rate of bioremediation process of organic contaminants by microorganisms can be limited by the concentration of nutrients and TEAs(Terminal Electron Accepters). In in-situ bioremediation, conventional pumping techniques have been used for supplying these additives. However, the injection of these additives is difficult in low permeable soils, and also hindered by preferential flow paths resulting from heterogeneities in high permeable ground. Therefore, the Injection of chemical additives is the most significant concern in in-situ bioremediation. Most recently, electrokinetic technique has been applied into the bioremediation and the injection characteristics under electrokinetics have not been examined in various soil types. Therefore, in this study, electrokinetic injection method is investigated in kaolinite and sand, and the concentration of ammonium(nutrients) and sulfate(TEAs) in soil is presented.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.46-52
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• 2008

Oils and chlorinated solvents leaking to the subsurface are entrapped in the soil pore and these are called as nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPL). NAPL entrapped in porous media acts as a continuous source for surface and ground water contamination. This study visualized dissolution of trichloroethylene (TCE) entrapped in porous media and quantified the velocity of TCE dissolution using an image analysis technique. As the water velocity increased, the level of dissolution increased. The results imply that a TCE contaminated region having a high infiltration rate and groundwater velocity may result in severe groundwater contamination. Microscopic images of TCE entrapped in porous media showed that TCE present in the preferential flow paths was easily dissoluted into the water phase. However, TCE present in the stagnant flow region was visualized for long time. The results imply that TCE would be still present in the soil if TCE is detected in goundwater.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.149-165
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• 1993

Nowadays, the field hydraulic test is still an only method to evaluate groundwater characteristics in subsurface. The results of hydraulic test are very important for the concept model of fracture hydrogeology as well as the geometric pattern of fractures. The hydraulic tests performed in Korea are generally analysed under such assumption as steady radial flow in homogeneous aquifer or along simple geometry of fractures. Also the transmissivity measured in a fixed interval length is equivalent to a sum of individual fracture transmissivities in test legth. The boundary effects of weH hydraulics and the geometry of flow paths are hardly obtained from the test results analysed by a steady flow method. To circumvent this problem, the flow dimensional analysis was attempted from the results of constant pressure injection test carried out in a fractured granite area. A comparison of the hydraulic conductivity values from the transient and steady analysis shows that the latter is about a factor of 2~3 higher than the former. However, it was possible to analyse a flow dimension of each test interval from flow rate variation with time. The upper part of the bedrock(<10m deep) indicates an open boundary and the flow dimension shows nearly steady states, while the lower part of the bedrock(>25m deep) is characterized as sublinear flow dimension with a dosed boundary. In one of the test sections(15m deep), the flow dimension was changed from linear flow to spherical flow. From the experience of this study, one of the immediate problems to be solved is to enhance the field testing equipments, i.e., an accurate flowmeter with autorecording and a pressure detecting device to be able to install in the test section.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.69-79
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• 2018

The Korean government attempts to reduce $CO_2$ emissions by 37% to 314.7 Mt $CO_2$, down from the estimated 850.6 Mt $CO_2$ until 2030 in order to confront green house effect. In this context, in 2014, Korean government launched $CO_2$ Storage Environmental Management Research (K-COSEM) Center for carrying out pilot-scale research on $CO_2$ leakage from underground $CO_2$ storage facilities. For the detection of $CO_2$ leakage, it is necessary to identify hydrologeological and geophysical characteristics of the subject area. In the study site of Naesan-ri, Daeso-myeon, Eumseong-gun, Chungbuk Province, two times injection tests (June 28-July 24, 2017 and August 07-September 11, 2017) of $CO_2$ and $SF_6$ dissolved waters, respectively, was conducted to understand the leakage behavior of $CO_2$ from underground. The injection well was drilled to a depth of 24 m with a 21-m casing and screen interval of 21~24 m depth. Two times resistivity surveys on August 18, 2017 and September 1, 2017, were conducted for revealing the flow of the injected water as well as the electrical properties of the study site. The study results have shown that the high-resistivity zone and the low-resistivity zone are clearly contrasted with each other and the flow direction of the injected water is similar to natural groundwater flow. Besides, the low resistivity zone is widely formed from the depth of injection to the shallow topsoil, indicating that the weathered zone of high permeability has high $CO_2$ leakage potential.