The surveying of soil and groundwater pollution in a petroleum refinery and the potential of bioremediation for oil decontamination

Abstract

Soil contamination with crude oil is an important worldwide issue and the remediation of oil contaminated soils, sediments and groundwater is a major environmental challenge. In the target area of this survey, which is a petroleum refinery near Tehran, soil and groundwater pollution, and its source, contaminated area, and distribution of pollution were studied by means of different measurements. Oil content and volatile organic compounds were measured to determine soil and groundwater contamination. The investigations showed that the contamination of soil which is mainly silt and clay has reached to the groundwater which is around 20 m underground and formed an oily layer mainly containing gasoline, kerosene, and gas oil with different thicknesses in the whole area. The free oil existing over the groundwater table could be removed by physical ways such as pump and treat method but decontamination of soil is more complex. Due to long-lasting contamination of the field, the existence of accumulated indigenous microorganisms and the probable ability of them to effectively biodegrade pollutants by man-assisted interventions are expected. In this survey in order to clarify the contamination problem, some experiments have been done on the region soil and groundwater. Besides, the feasibility assessment of bioremediation in the investigated area is performed.