Groundwater contamination as a result of Light Non Aqueous Phase Liquid (LNAPL) releases into
the subsurface is a widespread occurrence across South Africa which threatens current and future
water resources within the country. Groundwater contaminant fate and transport modelling are
common elements of hydrogeological investigations and remedial design methodologies in many
developed countries where the models are use as management and decision making tools. In South
Africa this is not the case, with contaminant flow and transport modelling rarely being employed as
part of LNAPL contamination investigations.
Over the last 3 years the Beaufort West study area has had extensive investigative work carried with
regards to the determination and delineation of LNAPL related groundwater contaminant plumes
which are present underneath a significant portion of the town. As a result an extensive data set has
been generated with regards to aquifer geometry, fracture network distribution, aquifer parameters
and contaminant plume concentrations and extent. The dataset should in theory provide an
opportunity to construct a groundwater contaminant fate and transport model for the area as a
remedial management tool. By means of collating previously existing data through a comprehensive
desktop study, and supplementing this data with a toolkit of field investigations techniques such as
diamond barrel core drilling, percussion drilling, electrical conductivity profiling, fluid electrical
conductivity profiling, aquifer pump testing, and low flow inorganic and organic groundwater
sampling, the conceptual model of the study area was updated and refined to a point where feasibility
of constructing a groundwater contaminant fate and transport model could be assessed.
Based upon the conceptual understanding of the study area as defined in the conceptual model
developed in the study, a groundwater contaminant fate and transport model is not considered feasible
for the study area with body of data currently available. This is attributed mainly to the high level of
complexity of the observed natural environment and the challenges in acquiring acceptable quality
field data such as aquifer parameters given the uncontrolled pumping environment which is present
due to the high number of private groundwater users. Potentially an even greater detractor to the
construction of a model, is that considering the conceptual understanding of the study area, there are
very few questions of significance whose answers could be provided by a model, and this would
indicate that a model would not be an effective remedial management or decision making tool in the
current scenario.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-10182011-130108 |
| Date | 18 October 2011 |
| Creators | Möhr, Samuel |
| Contributors | Dr I Dennis |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-10182011-130108/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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