• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.10a
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• pp.1-11
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• 2003

The objectives of this paper are to overview present status of soil pollution in Korea, to review the current policies and management strategies for soil pollution prevention and remediation of contaminated sites, and to suggest some recommendations to be considered toward more efficient policies. Soils in Korea are contaminated mainly by industrial facilities, landfills, underground storage tanks, abandoned/inactive mines, military camps, and other sources. Concentrations of most of soil pollutants were similar to the background levels, except for a few heavily contaminated sites such as industrial sites or abandoned/inactive mines. The Soil Environment Conservation Act (SECA), which was effective from 1995, provides a comprehensive legal framework for both preventing soil pollution and remedying contaminated sites in Korea. The Act includes various management policies such as the designation of standards and soil pollution policy area, soil monitoring networks, management of suspected contamination sources, and extended 'polluter-pays' principle. To make current policies more efficient and reasonable, some policies or strategies such as the establishment of national priority list, more detailed standards, risk-based cleanup goal, fund raise, soil erosion problem, and finally, integrity between soil and groundwater management frameworks may need to be pursued in the long term.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.253-266
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• 1993

GIS technique was applied for ffie work of water supply protection, and GIS rnaps were produced by this technique in Cheong-ju area. They are actual runoff rnap and regional groundwater protection map. The digital database was estabilished for creation of these maps in EGIS(Environmental Geologic information system). A lot of environmental, hydrological and geotedmical data relating to the area were collected from various sources, and used along with the results of the field investigation and laboratorv works in the interpretation of environmental geologic characteristics of the area. These special maps can be applied in the establishment of water supply protection and regional land use planning. For instant, the actaal runoff rnap is very linportant for hydrologic study, and groundwater protection map for susceptibility to groundwater contamination in the area. Actual runoff of the study area was calculated about 148mm using the method of SCS(Soil Consrevation Service) in GIS. The GIS technique was effective in watershed analysis and water balance study.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Groundwater Environment
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.122-129
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• 1997

Spills or leaks of hazardous organic. compounds from underground storage tanks (USTs) are common contaminant sources of soil and groundwater. It would aid in managing USTs to assess and rank the potential environmental hazard posed by the USTs. Therefore, a preliminary hazard ranking system of USTs is developed in this study. The system is combined with GIS and consists of five steps: 1) selection of significant factors, 2) determination of the hierarchy of the factors. 3) determination of the weights, 4) calculation of the potential hazard, and 5) hazard assessment. The system is applied to the gas stations in Kwanak-gu, Seoul. The results indicate that the gas stations can be categorized in three groups as highly hazardous, less highly hazardous, and weakly hazardous. Seven gas stations belong to the highly hazardous group. Through the sensitivity analysis, four stations appear to possess high hazard potentials regardless of weights assigned to the factors. It appears that a user can make flexible application of the hazard ranking system with the user's experience and particular purposes. However, the system still needs validations against field survey data.

• The Journal of Engineering Research
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.89-107
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• 2004

This study has tried to develop the modified DRASTIC Model by supplying the parameters, such as structural lineament density and landuse, into conventional DRASTIC model, and to predict the potential of groundwater contamination using GIS in Whanam 2 Area, Gyeonggi Province, Korea. Since the aquifers in Korea is generally through the joints of rock-mass in hydrogeological environment, lineament density affects to the behavior of groundwater and contaminated plumes directly, and land-use reflect the effect of point or non-point source of contamination indirectly. For the statistical analysis, lattice layers of each parameter were generated, and then level of confidence was assessed by analyzing each correlation coefficient. Composite contamination map was achieved as a final result by comparing modified DRASTIC potential and the amount of generation load of several contaminant sources logically. The result could suggest the predictability of the area of contamination potential on the respects of hydrogeological aspect and water quality.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Groundwater Environment
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.140-151
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• 1999

Groundwater samples from the southern area composed of andesitic rocks and the northwestern area composed of granite in Pusan city, have been collected and analyzed. According to the Piper diagram. groundwater in the southern area belongs to Ca$\^$2＋/－HCO$_3$$\^$－/ and Ca$\^$2＋/－(Cl$\^$－/＋SO$_4$$\^$2－/) types, and that in the northwestern area mostly belongs to Ca$\^$2＋/－HCO$_3$$\^$－/ type and partly Na$\^$＋/－HCO$_3$$\^$－/ type. Two factors (factor 1 and factor 2) were obtained from the result of the factor analysis in the southern area. Factor 1, consisting of Mg$\^$2＋/, Ca$\^$2＋/, Cl$\^$－/, SO$_4$$\^$2－/, NH$_4$$\^$＋/, EC and NO$_3$$\^$－/ is represented by the dissolution of Ca-plagioclase and calcite, and the influence of anthropogenic sources. Factor 2, consisting of K$\^$＋/, Na$\^$＋/. SiO$_2$, SO$_4$$\^$2－/, and HCO$_3$$\^$－/ is mainly represented by the dissolution of feldspar. Three factors were obtained from the result of the factor analysis in the northwestern area Factor 1, consisting of Na$\^$＋/, K$\^$＋/, NH$_4$$\^$＋/, Cl$\^$－/, SO$_4$$\^$2－/ and NO$_3$$\^$－/ explains dissolution of plagioclase and mica, the influence of anthropogenic sources and salt water. Factor 2, consisting of Ca$\^$2＋/ and HCO$_3$$\^$－/ explains the dissolution of Ca-plagioclase. Factor 3, consisting of Mg$\^$2＋/ and SiO$_2$, explains the dissolution of silicate minces. and contaminants. Based on the phase stability diagrams, groundwater both in the southern and in the northwestern area is mostly in equilibrium with kaolinite. Cl$\^$－/ with respect to Na$\^$＋/, Ca$\^$2＋/, Mg$\^$2＋/, K$\^$＋/, SO$_4$$\^$2－/ and HCO$_3$$\^$－/ indicates that both the northwestern area and the southern area are influenced by the salt water.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.60-66
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• 2012

This study was designed to detect and measure the concentration of radioactivity of natural radionuclides ($^{238}U$, $^{232}Th$, $^{40}K$) and artificial radionuclides ($^{137}Cs$, $^{60}Co$) present in the drinking water of the city of Busan and surrounding areas in South Korea, and also to measure the absorbed dose of radiation caused by these elements in the residents so as to help better manage the risk that these radionuclides pose in the future. For the purposes of the study, a total of 42 samples of water were collected from three key water sources (19 samples of groundwater, 4 samples of tap water, and 19 samples of surface water) and their contents were analyzed for radioactivity concentration. The results revealed that two natural radionuclides, $^{238}U$ and $^{232}Th$, exist in the groundwater with an average concentration of radioactivity of 3.34 Bq/L and $8.28{\times}10^{-5}Bq/L$ respectively, while the surface water was found to contain the same two radionuclides with mean concentrations of 0.849 Bq/L and $1.103{\times}10^{-4}Bq/L$ respectively. In addition, of the 19 samples of the groundwater, $^{137}Cs$ was found in eight of them and $^{60}Co$ was detected in ten. Of the four samples of the tap water, $^{137}Cs$ was detected in all samples and $^{60}Co$ was detected in three. Both $^{137}Cs$ and $^{60}Co$ were detected in all 12 samples of surface water. As far as $^{40}K$ is concerned, this element was detected in three of the 19 groundwater samples, but was not detected in any surface or tap water sample. In addition, the absorbed dose of $^{238}U$ from the groundwater was $7.94{\times}10^{-8}Sv/y$, while the absorbed dose of $^{232}Th$ from the surface water was $9.33{\times}10^{-13}Sv/y$. The absorbed dose of $^{137}Cs$ from the tap water was $7.33{\times}10^{-5}Sv/y$, while the absorbed dose of $^{60}Co$ from the surface water was the highest at $4.23{\times}10^{-6}Sv/y$.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Groundwater Environment
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.55-58
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• 2000

Methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) is a gasoline additive that boosts the oxygen content in fuel (an oxygenate), resulting in less air-polluting carbon monoxide being released from vehicle exhaust systems. Then, groundwater contamination problems have been developed in areas where the chemical is used. Common sources of water contamination by MTBE include leaking underground gasoline storage tanks and leaks and spills from above ground fuel storage tanks, etc.. Studies on the chemical and these problems are going on abroad vigorously. These studies should be performed in our country as well more actively. This paper reviews on articles on these studies and focuses on the identification of the chemical as a groundwater contamination source.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.38 no.3 s.172
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• pp.261-272
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• 2005

The groundwaters in the basin of Seomjin River are classified mainly into Na-Cl type with high EC and $NaHCO_3$ type with low EC, and are characterized by enriched $K^+,\;Mg^{2+},\; NO_3^-,\; and\;SO_4\;^{2-}$ contents. The epm fraction of $Na^+Cl^-$ in TDS increases in general with increasing EC of groundwater. The correlation patterns among dissolved ions indicate that $Na^+\;and\;Cl^-$ are derived mainly from intruded seawater, and $K^+,\;Mg^{2-},\;and\;SO_4\;^{2-}$ from anthropogenic source such as a chemical fertilizer. The groundwaters that exceed the recommended limits far agricultural irrigation water contains $23\%\;of\;Cl^-$ reflecting sea-water intrusion, but $50\%\;of\;NO_3^-$ as an anthropogenic pollution, among the wells investigated. In risk assessment of groundwaters by the EC-SAR relationship, only $40\%$ of the groundwaters shows the suitable quality for agricultural irrigation water without any sodium and salinity hazards. Consequently, the pollution sources that cause degradation of groundwater quality in the basin of Seomjin River are the usage of chemical fertilizers and the intrusion of seawater, resulted primarily from the extension of riverward backflow of seawater and secondarily from the overpumping of groundwater.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.41 no.6
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• pp.630-646
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• 2020

In rural areas, nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N) pollution caused by agricultural activities is a major obstacle to the use of shallow groundwater as domestic water or drinking water. In this study, the water quality characteristics of shallow groundwater in Hyogyo-ri agricultural area of Yesan-gun, Chungcheongnam-do province was studied in connection with land use and chemical composition of soil layer. The average NO3-N concentration in groundwater exceeds the domestic and agricultural standard water qualities of Korea and is caused by anthropogenic sources such as fertilizer, livestock wastewater, and domestic sewage. The groundwater type mainly belongs to Ca(Na)-Cl type, unlike Ca-HCO3 type, a general type of shallow groundwater. The average NO3-N concentration (7.7 mg L-1) in groundwater in rice paddy/other (upstream, ranch, and residential) area is lower than the average concentration (22.8 mg L-1) in farm field area, due to a lower permeability in paddy area than that in farm field area. According to the trend analysis by the Mann-Kendall and Sen tests, the NO3-N concentration in the shallow groundwater shows a very weak decreasing trend with ~0.011 mg L-1yr-1 with indicating almost equilibrium state. Meanwhile, SO42- and HCO3- concentrations display annual decreasing trend by 15.48 and 13.15%, respectively. At a zone of 0 to 5 m below the surface, the average hydraulic conductivity is 1.86×10-5 cm s-1, with a greater value (1.03×10-4cm s-1) in sand layer and a smaller value (2.50×10-8 cm s-1) in silt layer.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.271-277
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• 1993

Indoor radon has been known as one of the notorious carcinogens. However, a safe environmental criterion of radon has not yet been established in Korea, The main objectives of this study were to study concentration distributions of radon, to trace radon sources in subways, and to obtain a strategy for radon reduction in Seoul metropolitan area. Radon concentrations had been extensively determined by several steps. The first step was to survey radon levels in all of 83 subway stations from October to November in 1991. The second step was to select 40 out of 83 stations and then to study seasonal variations in 1991 and 1992. The third step was to monitor radon levels by hourly-basis plans. The fourth step was to seek a radon reduction strategy by altering ventilation at Ankuk station where had the highest radon concentration during the first measurement step. Each underground floor in the station was divided into 10 sites to measure hourly radon variations. The final step of the study was to measure radon concentrations in groundwater that is one of the possible main sources radon place. The result of the various measuring approaches showed short-and long-term radon variation and indicated radon reduction schemes.