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In this research, soil pollution with petroleum constituents in Azeem-Abad area (south of Tehran’s oil refinery) has been studied.
Since a decade ago, the soil and groundwater in the area have been polluted due to leaking of petroleum constituents from the underground storage tanks, worn out transitory pipes, and solid wastes resulting from the raw oil refining processes.
To investigate the soil pollution in the area, geotechnical tests (including grain size distribution, plastic and liquid limits, permeability, and in-situ specefic gravity), and BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene) analysis were carried out on soil samples. The total and leachable concentration of the contaminants were determined (leachable concentration of the compounds was measured using toxicity characteristics leaching procedure test, TCLP). Moreover, the allowable contaminant’s concentrations in soil were procured utilizing U.S.EPA recommended levels.
The comparison of current soil pollution with the allowable contaminant levels indicated that the soil in some parts of the area was defiled with the petroleum constituents and the pollutants have the potential of leakings to groundwater.
At the end, based on the soil sample’s results and analysis, some strategies to control the pollution development in the area have been presented and suitable remediation procedures (such as solidifiation/stabilization, soil flushing, and soil vapour extraction) are suggested.