[pt] A contaminação do meio ambiente de subsuperfície com resíduos perigosos e tóxicos tem se tornado um dos maiores problemas ambientais em vários países, com muitos locais apresentando contaminação da água subterrânea. A dissertação visa a caracterização de propriedades de transporte em solos residuais do estado do Rio de Janeiro; em especial será focalizado o comportamento e a mobilidade neste solo de metais pesados como o cádmio, zinco, cromo e chumbo. O conhecimento do comportamento dos metais no solo é importante para a previsão de acidentes ambientais e para a avaliação de possíveis soluções. Mudanças no ambiente, como variação do pH, podem interferir no comportamento do metal, desta forma o conhecimento das condições locais é importante para previsão do comportamento do contaminante. Foram realizados ensaios de batelada e de coluna com diferentes metais, para entender como se comportam nos solos residuais caracterizados. Para complementar o estudo uma modelagem geoquímica foi feita a partir dos dados experimentais com o programa computacional PHREEQC. / [en] The contamination of the underground environment by hazardous and toxic wastes has become one of the main environment problems in several countries where many sites present groundwater infection. The project purpose is the characterization of the transport properties in residual soils of the Rio de Janeiro state. Mainly it will be focused the behaviour and the mobility of heavy metals, for example, the cadmium, the zinc, the chromium and the lead in this kind of soil. To know the behaviour of the metals in the soil is important for the prevision of environmental accidents and for the evaluation of possible solutions. Changes in the environment, as the pH variation, may interfere in the metal conduct thus the knowledge of the local conditions is essential for the prevision of the contamination procedure. Batch and column tests were made using different metals in order to understand how they act in the characterized residual soils. To complement the studies a geochemical modeling was made using the experimental data with the compute program, PHREEQC.

Colistin is a polypeptide antibiotic used as a "last resort" effective against Gram-negative bacteria. However, increase in its consumption in veterinary medicine in the last 30 years has led to the development of bacterial resistance even to colistin. The application of slurry to soil containing unmetabolized colistin and resistant bacteria poses a risk, because the resistance of bacteria to colistin can be further developed and spread to other components of the environment. Therefore, this work was focused on the creation and optimization of extraction and analytical methods for soil samples containing colistin. Colistin was detected by liquid chromatography in connection with mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS and UPLC/MS/MS). Many extraction solutions have been tested in connection with ultrasonic extraction and purification on various SPE columns, yet colistin has not been successfully extracted from the soil. Colistin was successfully detected only in the slurry extract. The reason why colistin was not detected in soil extracts could be the sorption of colistin on soil organic matter or the formation of complexes of colistin with humic substances.

Les éleveurs laitiers-bovins présentent une incidence plus élevée de symptômes respiratoires et de maladies broncho-pulmonaires que la population générale. Un facteur de risque important serait l’exposition professionnelle à divers aéro-contaminants d’origine biologique et chimique. Les déterminants professionnels de ces expositions et les effets biologiques des contaminants inhalés de manière répétée restent cependant mal connus. Dans ce contexte, les travaux réalisés au cours de cette thèse avaient pour objectifs i) de rechercher les déterminants professionnels de l’exposition aux bio-aérosols thoraciques (poussières organiques, endotoxines, bactéries et moisissures), à l’ammoniac et à l’acétaldéhyde, et ii) de caractériser les effets pro-inflammatoires des poussières thoraciques émises lors de la tâche de paillage mécanisé qui est connue pour induire une forte exposition aux bio-aérosols. Pour atteindre ces objectifs, nous avons réalisé une campagne de 112 mesures individuelles répétées dans 29 exploitations laitières d’élevage bovin localisées en Bretagne. Par l’utilisation de modèles multivariés à effets mixtes, nous montrons que l’exposition aux bio-aérosols est majoritairement induite par l’exécution de tâches liées à la distribution de litières et d’aliments (paille, foin, ensilage). L’exposition à l’ammoniac est fortement dépendante du nombre de vaches présentes dans l’exploitation et des temps passés en stabulation et en salle de traite. L’exposition à l’acétaldéhyde est dépendante de la taille de l’exploitation et des tâches liées à la distribution d’ensilage. Nos travaux soulignent également qu’une augmentation de la surface des ouvertures de la stabulation est associée à une réduction significative de l’exposition aux moisissures, à l’ammoniac et à l’acétaldéhyde. Enfin, notre étude montre que les poussières émises lors du paillage mécanisé ont (1) une taille leur permettant de se déposer majoritairement dans les régions trachéo-bronchiques, (2) une composition bactériologique et fongique complexe et (3) in vitro des effets pro-inflammatoires puissants induisant l’expression de TNF-α, d’IL-1β, d’IL-6 et d’IL-8 dans des macrophages humains. Au total, ces travaux de thèse ont permis d’identifier des activités professionnelles et des caractéristiques d’exploitations augmentant significativement les niveaux d’expositions des éleveurs laitiers-bovins à des contaminants chimiques et à des poussières organiques pouvant théoriquement se déposer dans les tissus bronchiques où sont censées se développer différentes maladies broncho-pulmonaires. Les modèles statistiques développés au cours de la thèse permettent dès à présent la reconstitution des expositions des éleveurs et pourront être utilisés dans de futures études épidémiologiques et dans l’élaboration de programmes de prévention. / Dairy farmers have an increased risk of lower airway diseases that is likely related to occupational exposures to airborne contaminants. Nevertheless, occupational determinants of dairy farmers’ exposures remain poorly documented and the biological effects of the contaminants chronically inhaled by farmers need to be fully characterized. In this context, the objectives of this PhD thesis were i) to identify the occupational determinants of exposure to thoracic bio-aerosols (organic dusts, endotoxins, bacteria and moulds), ammonia and acetaldehyde, and ii) to characterize the pro-inflammatory effects of thoracic dusts emitted during the mechanical spreading of straw bedding, a task well-known to generate inhalable dusts. To achieve these goals, we carried out a 112-repeated exposure measurement campaign on 29 dairy farms located in Britany. Using multivariate mixed-effect regression models, we have demonstrated that farmers’ exposures to bio-aerosols were mainly induced by tasks related to bedding material distribution and cow feeding (straw, hay, silage). Exposure levels to ammonia were highly dependent on cow numbers and times spent by the farmers in stable and milking parlour. Acetaldehyde exposure was modulated according to the farm size and times spent to distribute silage. Our work also highlighted that an increase of the area of wall opening significantly reduced exposure to mould, acetaldehyde and ammonia. Finally, our study showed that dusts emitted during mechanical straw spreading have (1) a size small enough to allow them to deposit in the tracheobronchial regions, (2) a complex bacterial and fungal composition, and (3) strong in vitro pro-inflammatory effects that induced TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and IL-8 expression in human macrophages. In conclusion, these results have identified different dairy farm characteristics and occupational tasks that significantly increased the exposure levels to chemical contaminants and thoracic organic dusts. Statistical models built during this research project already allow reconstitution of dairy farmers’ exposure that may of use in future epidemiological studies and to develop new preventive measures.

The coastal, indigenous communities around Alaska have subsisted on marine animals for generations, often focusing on large apex predators such as seals, sea lions, and whales. Three species of pinnipeds (harbor seal, Steller sea lion, northern fur seal) and the northern sea otter have all undergone significant population declines since the 1970s, some regions more than others. Archived vibrissae (whiskers) and body tissues from these four species were available from the Bering Sea and throughout the Gulf of Alaska from the 1990s and early 2000s. Tissues from these species are exceedingly difficult to obtain; thus, the archived tissues provided a finite and irreplaceable resource of data. Analysis of these archived tissues indicates which species, tissues, and gender bioaccumulate metals more readily. In this study twelve heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead, manganese, mercury, nickel, selenium, vanadium, zinc) were analyzed in vibrissae from the four select species, and in body tissues from harbor seals and Steller sea lions. The samples were collected from three regions (southeastern, southcentral, and southwestern Alaska) during the 1990s through early 2000s. Significant differences of heavy metal concentrations in vibrissae were detected among elements (p2(110) = 454.81, p2(66) = 310.88, p

Evidence suggests that pesticide exposure is a risk factor for atherosclerosis, a pathology involving oxidative stress and dysregulated cholesterol metabolism in monocytes and macrophages as vital causative factors. This research focused on understanding two different mechanisms by which organochlorine and organophosphate pesticides may contribute to atherogenesis. First, the ability of organochlorine insecticides to contribute to elevated oxidative stress was investigated. Urinary concentrations of F2-isoprostanes (a systemic oxidative stress biomarker) and serum levels of the persistent organochlorine compounds p,p’-DDE, trans-nonachlor and oxychlordane were quantified in human samples and the association of these factors with diagnosis of atherosclerosis was described in a cross-sectional study. Subsequently, the ability of three bioaccumulative organochlorine insecticides, trans-nonachlor, dieldrin and p,p’-DDE, to induce the production of superoxide radical anion via NADPH oxidase activation in cultured human THP-1 monocytes through a phospholipase A2 (PLA2)-derived arachidonic acid (AA) signaling cascade was investigated. Trans-nonachlor induced NOX-dependent generation of superoxide/ROS (as measured using three distinct assay types) and stimulated the phosphorylation and membrane translocation of the p47phox regulatory subunit (two biomarkers of Nox activation). Measurement of arachidonic acid and eicosanoid release from OC-exposed monocytes by LC-MS/MS analysis subsequently confirmed the role of PLA2 as a central signaling node in the induction of reactive oxygen production in this process. To investigate a separate mechanism by which organophosphate toxicity may contribute to atherosclerosis, the ability of the esterase/lipase carboxylesterase 1 (CES1), a major enzyme target of OP toxicants, to regulate endocannabinoid and cholesterol homeostasis in human macrophages was assessed. Experimental ablation of CES1 activity altered cholesterol uptake, but not efflux in macrophage foam cells in vitro. Numerous genes involved in the cholesterol homeostatic process, including scavenger receptors (SR-A, CD36), cholesterol transporters (ABCA1, ABCG1), nuclear receptors (LXR, PPAR) and oxysterol forming enzymes (CYP27A1), were profoundly downregulated in CES1 knockdown cells. CES1 appears to play a broad central role in both normal macrophage physiology and the homeostatic response to modified LDL, potentially by liberating esterified molecules from lipoprotein particles that serve as ligands for transcription factors such as PPAR and LXR that control the expression of genes critical to the cholesterol metabolic process.

[ES] Como parte de los métodos de asimilacíon de datos, los métodos basados en conjuntos han ganado popularidad en hidrogeología dada su capacidad para manejar grandes cantidades de datos observados simultáneamente. Recientemente, se ha comenzado a emplear este método para la identificacíon de fuentes de contaminacíon en casos sintéticos. Basándonos en estos trabajos anteriores, hemos dado un paso adelante evaluando su rendimiento en experimentos de tanque de laboratorio. La tesis se puede dividir en cuatro partes. En la primera parte, el filtro de Kalman de conjuntos con reinicio (r-EnKF) se utiliza para la identificacíon espacio-temporal de una fuente puntual de contaminantes en un experimento en tanque de laboratorio, junto con la identificacíon de la posicíon y longitud de una placa vertical insertada en el tanque que modifica la geometría del sistema. Los resultados muestran que el r-EnKF es capaz de identificar tanto la fuente como los parámetros relacionados con la geometría del acuífero. La segunda parte muestra una aplicacíon del filtro de Kalman de conjuntos con anamorfosis normal y reinicio (NS-EnKF) y con inflacíon de la covarianza en un experimento de laboratorio con conductividad heterogénea. El método se prueba primero utilizando un caso sintético que imita el experimento del tanque para establecer el número mínimo de miembros del conjunto y la mejor técnica para evitar el colapso del filtro. Luego, su aplicacíon a los datos del tanque muestra que el NS-EnKF con reinicio puede beneficiarse de la inflacíon de Bauser para reducir el tama ñ o del conjunto y llegar a una buena identificacíon conjunta tanto de la fuente de contaminantes como de la heterogeneidad espacial de las conductividades. En la tercera parte, el filtro de Kalman de conjuntos suavizado con asimilacíon múltiple de datos (ES-MDA) se emplea para la identificacíon simultánea de una fuente de contaminantes y la distribucíon espacial de la conductividad hidráulica utilizando el r-EnKF como punto de referencia. El resultado muestra que el ES-MDA puede superar al r-EnKF, marginalmente, para el caso sintético específico analizado con el mismo consumo de CPU, y puede funcionar mucho mejor que el r-EnKF a cambio de un mayor costo de CPU. La cuarta y última parte investiga el rendimiento del ES-MDA en un problema de identificacíon de una inyeccíon de contaminante que varía en el tiempo. Se analiza la influencia de diferentes intervalos de observacíon y esquemas de inflacíon de la covarianza en la determinacíon de la curva de inyeccíon. El resultado muestra que el ES-MDA funciona muy bien en la identificacíon de la curva de inyeccíon cuando la discretizacíon de la misma no es muy alta, pero encuentra problemas de fluctuacíon en los casos con discretizaciones altas. La frecuencia con la que se muestrean los datos de observacíon es un factor influyente, mientras que el número de iteraciones o los métodos de inflacíon de la covarianza tienen menos efecto. / [CA] Com a part dels mètodes d'assimilació de dades, els mètodes basats en conjunts han guanyat popularitat en hidrogeologia donada la seua capacitat per a manejar grans quantitats de dades observades simultàniament. Recentment, s'ha començat a emprar aquest mètode per a la identificació de fonts de contaminació en casos sintètics. Basant-nos en aquests treballs anteriors, hem fet un pas avant avaluant el seu rendiment en experiments de tanc de laboratori. La tesi es pot dividir en quatre parts.En la primera part, el filtre de Kalman de conjunts amb reinici (r-EnKF) s'utilitza per a la identificació espaciotemporal d'una font puntual de contaminants en un experiment en tanc de laboratori, juntament amb la identificació de la posició i longitud d'una placa vertical inserida en el tanc que modifica la geometria del sistema. Els resultats mostren que el r-EnKF és capaç d'identificar tant la font com els paràmetres relacionats amb la geometria de l'aqüífer. La segona part mostra una aplicació del filtre de Kalman de conjunts amb anamorfosis normal i reinici (NS-EnKF) i amb inflació de la covariància en un experiment de laboratori amb conductivitat heterogènia. El mètode es prova primer utilitzant un cas sintètic que imita l'experiment del tanc per a establir el nombre mínim de membres del conjunt i la millor tècnica per a evitar el col·lapse del filtre. Després, la seua aplicació a les dades del tanc mostra que el NS-EnKF amb reinici pot beneficiar-se de la inflació de Bauser per a reduir la grandària del conjunt i arribar a una bona identificació conjunta tant de la font de contaminants com de l'heterogeneïtat espacial de les conductivitats. En la tercera part, el filtre de Kalman de conjunts suavitzat amb assimilació múltiple de dades (ES-MDA) s'empra per a la identificació simultània d'una font de contaminants i la distribució espacial de la conductivitat hidràulica utilitzant el r-EnKF com a punt de referència. El resultat mostra que l'ES-MDA pot superar al r-EnKF, marginalment, per al cas sintètic específic analitzat amb el mateix consum de CPU, i pot funcionar molt millor que el r-EnKF a canvi d'un major cost de CPU. La quarta i última part investiga el rendiment de l'ES-MDA en un problema d'identificació d'una injecció de contaminant que varia en el temps. S'analitza la influència de diferents intervals d'observació i esquemes de inflació de la covariància en la determinació de la corba d'injecció. El resultat mostra que l'ES-MDA funciona molt bé en la identificació de la corba d'injecció quan la discretització no és massa alta, però troba problemes de fluctuació amb discretitzacions massa fines. La freqüència amb la qual es mostregen les dades d'observació és un factor influent en aquesta aplicació, mentre que el nombre d'iteracions o els mètodes d'inflació de la covariància tenen menys efecte. / [EN] As part of the data assimilation methods, the ensemble-based methods have gained popularity in hydrogeology given their ability to deal with huge amounts of observed data simultaneously. More recently, researchers have started to employ these methods to deduce contamination source information in synthetic cases. Based on these previous work, we take a step further to evaluate their performance in sandbox experiments. The main objective of this thesis is to verify the capacity of the ensemble-based methods in identifying contaminant sources and complex geological heterogeneity. The thesis could be divided into four parts. In the first part, the restart ensemble Kalman filter (r-EnKF) is used for the spatiotemporal identification of a point contaminant source in a sandbox experiment, together with the identification of the position and length of a vertical plate inserted in the sandbox that modifies the geometry of the system. The results show that the r-EnKF is capable of identifying both contaminant source information and aquifer-geometry-related parameters. The second part shows an application of the restart normal-score ensemble Kalman filter (NS-EnKF) with covariance inflation in a heterogenous conductivity laboratory experiment. The method is first tested using a synthetic case that mimics the sandbox experiment to establish the minimum number of ensemble members and the best technique to prevent filter collapse. Then, its application to the sandbox data shows that the restart NS-EnKF can benefit from Bauser's inflation to reduce the ensemble size and to arrive to a good joint identification of both the contaminant source and the spatial heterogeneity of conductivities. In the third part, the ensemble smoother with multiple data assimilation (ES-MDA) is employed for the simultaneous identification of a contaminant source and the spatial distribution of hydraulic conductivity while using the r-EnKF as a benchmark. The outcome shows that the ES-MDA is able to outperform the r-EnKF, marginally, for the specific synthetic case analyzed with almost the same CPU consumption, and it can perform far better than the r-EnKF just with a cost of larger CPU usage. The forth and last part investigates the performance of the ES-MDA in a time-varying release history identification problem. The influence of different observation intervals and inflation factor schemes on the determination of the release curve are discussed. The outcome shows that the ES-MDA performs great in recovering release history when the history curve is discretized in not too many steps, and that it fails when the discretization is large. The frequency at which observation data are sampled is an influential factor in this application, while the number of iterations or the inflation scheme have less effect. / Thanks to the institutions that financed my studies. The support to carry out my work was received from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through project CGL2014-59841-P, and from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports through a fellowship for the mobility of professors in foreign research and higher education institutions to my supervisor, reference PRX17/00150 / Chen, Z. (2020). Stochastic Identification of Pollutant Sources in Aquifers by the Ensemble Kalman Filter [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/160628 / TESIS

No description available.

No description available.

Drinking water contamination is a big concern in Sweden and is commonly traced back to being waste from former manufacturing industrial sites. Pollutants in the topsoil can be remediated by several techniques, such as decontamination or excavation but the toxins already enclosed in the bedrock cannot be treated the same and is harder to track possible contaminant pathways. To gain knowledge of modelling fluid flow and solute transport in the bedrock is therefore highly crucial to detect any safety risks. Not only for drinking water safety but also to understand possible reservoir storage or to store disposals from radioactive waste.  For this study, high levels of chlorinated solvents have been measured at a former industrial plant manufacturing electronic products, where the prominent chemicals are PCE and its degradation products. The soil will be remediated from the site, but the remaining question is if the contaminants can be further transported in the bedrock fractures to a drinking water source for the municipality. The lake is located approximately 4km from the site and will take too much time and computational effort to run the model. Instead, this study will focus on a small-scale model estimating a suitable distance from the source where additional boreholes can be placed. The model will have a size of 455 x 436 x 38m and the study will be divided into three main tasks; improve understanding of the fracture geometry by statistical analyses of the measured fractures in the study area, build and run a groundwater flow model representing the study area, investigate possible pathways of contaminant transport in the fracture networks and analyze the impact of geological features.  The methodology is divided into several parts. First, statistical analyses of the fractures will be done using the software FracMan version 8.0, which will act as a foundation of the DFN model. Next part includes calibration of the model and generation of fracture network based on the statistical analysis. The last part includes flow and transport simulations using the application Pflotran within FracMan version 8.1.  The results shows that large fracture zones affect the flow to a great extent and therefore also control the transport of contaminants in the bedrock. Because of uncertainties regarding size of the zones, additional boreholes should be placed upon their respective orientations close to the already existing boreholes to investigate their characteristics. It is also necessary to place additional boreholes randomly within the study model to detect other fracture zones and possible dominant fracture sets. The additional boreholes should be deeper than the existing ones to detect possible fracture networks further down in the bedrock. Contaminant pathways are hard to establish because of the deterministic zones that determines the flow. The scenario where no zones were included, two dominant pathways are visible, one on the upper part and one in the lower part of the model. The scenario where zones were included, one dominant pathway is visible, following the large fracture zone reaching from one borehole towards the outlet boundary. In conclusion, these results highlight the importance of doing more measurements to strengthen the basis for evaluation of pollutant transport to the nearby lake. Because of the risk of poisoning the drinking water, it is extremely important to be able to make a realistic model for contaminant transport. Since the results of flow simulations differs between different input transmissivities, next step should be to do hydraulic tests in the already existing boreholes to establish the local transmissivity for the fractures. After that, additional boreholes in the field, both on top of the measured zones close to the existing boreholes as well as boreholes randomly throughout the study area should be placed. / Rent dricksvatten är en angelägenhet för alla i Sverige och för att säkerhetsställa rent dricksvatten krävs förebyggande åtgärder som kan förhindra att föroreningar tar sig till dricksvattenkällor. Dessa åtgärder kan bland annat innehålla mätningar för att spåra föroreningens ursprung och transportvägar. Ursprungen kan oftast kopplas till avfall från gamla tillverkningsindustrier. Föroreningar som spåras till matjorden kan åtgärdas genom sanering eller schaktning medan föroreningar som tagit sig ner i berggrunden inte kan behandlas på samma sätt. Föroreningars transport genom sprickor är svåra att spåra och lokalisera på grund av oförutsägbara förhållanden med olika bergarter, kvalitéer, sprickstorlek etcetera. På grund av detta är det viktigt att kunna modellera flöden och transport av lösa ämnen för att förhindra hälso-och säkerhetsrisker. Modellering av spricksystem är även viktigt för att undersöka framtidens energiextraktion från geotermisk aktivitet, eller att kunna lagra avfall från radioaktiva ämnen.  Denna studie görs då det har mätts upp höga nivåer av klorerade lösningsmedel från en gammal fabrik som tillverkat elektronikprodukter, främst kemikalierna PCE och dess nedbrytningsprodukter. Mätningar har gjorts på platsen i form av tre borrningar och bergkartering. Föroreningar i jordmånen kommer att åtgärdas men den kvarstående funderingen är om de föroreningarna som redan tagit sig ner i berggrunden, kan transporteras genom spricknätverket fram till en sjö som kommunen använder som dricksvattenkälla. Sjön är lokaliserad ungefär fyra kilometer från den gamla anläggningen och på grund av den långa distansen kommer det krävas mycket lagring och beräkningskraft av den använda datorn. För att undvika detta, kommer denna studie i stället fokusera på en småskalig modell med den ungefärliga storleken 455 x 436 x 38m där syftet är att uppskatta var nya borrningar kan göras för att få fram mer information angående potentiella föroreningar och dess flyktvägar. Denna studie kommer vara uppdelad i tre huvudsakliga syften; göra statistiska analyser av data som samlats in från fält, bygga upp och köra en grundvattenmodell som representerar studieområdet, undersöka potentiella vägar för transport av föroreningar i spricksystemet samt analysera dess påverkan av geologiska egenskaper.  För denna studie har metoden delats upp i flera steg. Det första steget innehåller statistiska analyser av sprickorna i området som kommer utgöra grundinformationen för spricknätverket. Detta görs i programmet FracMan version 8.0. Nästa del innehåller kalibrering av modellen samt flödes- och transportsimuleringar genom applikationen Pflotran som är installerat i FracMan version 8.1.  Resultatet av flödes- och transportsimuleringarna visar att stora sprickzoner påverkar flödet i stor utsträckning och kontrollerar därför transporten av föroreningar. Storleken av sprickzonerna är svåra att bedöma då det inte finns någon mer information än det som mätts i borrhålet, där den minsta storleken är av borrhålets radie. På grund av detta lades zonerna in deterministiskt med en radie lika stor som modellen. Detta medför att resultaten över transporteringsvägar är högst bestämmande av zonerna där zonen som går mot utflödesgränsen agerar som en motorväg för föroreningar medan zonen som går mot en gräns utan utflöde agerar likt en sjö, vilket gör att partiklarna som hamnar i zonen stannar där och kan inte ta sig därifrån och fortsätta transporten. På grund av denna osäkerhet kring storleken för zonerna bör det placeras ytligare borrhål längs med orienteringen av sprickorna max 10 meter från de existerande borrhålen för att se om zonerna fortsätter eller blivit avkapade. Eftersom inga hydrauliska tester gjorts i borrhålen är det ett viktigt nästa steg för att bestämma rätt transmissivitet i sprickorna. Det är möjligt att det finns fler zoner inom området som kan bestämma flödesvägar, därför är det också viktigt att placera ut fler borrhål slumpmässigt inom området för att upptäcka fler zoner eller andra dominerande sprickorienteringar än de som hittills mätts. Alla nya borrhål bör även gå djupare än de som redan finns för att kunna upptäcka andra eventuella spricknätverk djupare ner i berggrunden. På grund av risken att kontaminera dricksvattnet är det otroligt viktigt att kunna göra en realistisk modell som representerar transporten av föroreningar. Fortsatt arbete bör därför prioritera hydrauliska tester för att bestämma transmissiviteten i spricknätverket, därefter utföra fler och djupare borrhål i området för att undersöka andra potentiella deformationer.

Mixtures of chlorinated organic pollutants can be found in the soils at chlorophenol-contaminated sawmill, including (inter alia) polychlorinated phenols (CPs), phenoxyphenols (PCPPs), diphenyl ethers (PCDEs), dibenzofurans (PCDFs) and dioxins (PCDDs). These hydrophobic compounds have low water solubility and hence low mobility as truly dissolved compounds. However, they may migrate through the soil at significant rates via co-transport with dissolved organic matter (DOM) and colloids of fine, waterborne particulate matter. In the work underlying this thesis the distribution of chlorinated hydrophobic pollutants between these two mobile fractions in soil samples from five sawmill sites was studied Soils at five sites at which CPs were formerly used were characterized, and found to have complex profiles of chlorinated hydrophobic pollutants. CPs, PCPPs, PCDEs and PCDD/Fs were present at up to ppm-levels. Furthermore, the relative proportions of the pollutants differed from their relative proportions in the preservatives used at the sites, indicating that they have been transported from, and/or degraded in, the soil at different rates. These organic pollutants have low water solubility and strong affinity for soil organic matter (SOM). The importance of SOM for the fate of CPs, PCPPs, PCDEs, PCDFs and PCDDs in soil was investigated by examining the distribution of compounds between the mobile DOM and the immobile particulate organic matter (POM). The partitioning of CPs between DOM and POM was found to be approximately equal. However, the relative strength of association with POM of groups of chlorinated organic pollutants was positively correlated with their hydrophobicity, and thus increased in the order CP < PCPP < PCDE < PCDF < PCDD. Despite the weak association of PCDD/Fs with DOM our investigations found that considerable concentrations of these pollutants were bound to mobile fractions (DOM and colloids, >0.2 µm) in both a groundwater analysis and a leaching test. CPs and PCPP were present at up to ppm- and ppb-levels, respectively, and PCDEs and PCDD/Fs at up to ppt-levels. The importance of transport in association with the mobile fraction (DOM and colloids) increased with increasing hydrophobicity e.g. PCDDs were almost entirely associated with fine particulate matter, while CPs were largely found in the water phase and only minor proportions were associated with colloids.