Elevated chloride concentrations (>250 mg/l) were reported to the Ohio State Environmental Protection Agency in the early 2000s by a rural resident using groundwater for domestic consumption from a private water well. An adjacent commercial oil and gas pipe yard had spread relatively small volumes of oilfield brines from 1998 through 2000 to control dust during summers and to de-ice on the property driveways, and county and state agencies used halite and other brines on surrounding rural county and state highways during the winter. There are multiple sources in the immediate area that might have contributed to local groundwater by varying degrees, resulting in elevated chloride concentrations reported in the samples from the on-site monitoring wells and from the neighborhood water wells over the years prior to 2004, the time of our investigations. An independent investigation was undertaken to characterize the local hydrogeological and geochemical conditions below and surrounding the pipe yard, which has the highest elevation in the area. Data collection to support the investigation consisted of: 1) the installation of nested groundwater monitoring wells (shallow and deep) located at six sites along the periphery and central part of the pipe yard, 2) stratigraphic core drilling, recovery and examination of 220 feet of core, 3) natural gamma and caliper logging of core hole, 4) groundwater sampling for geochemistry and periodic on-site measuring of water levels in each of the monitoring wells, surrounding off-site rural water wells, and up-gradient rural water wells. Formal interviews with residents concerned their use and management of water wells, and any water-softening and/or septic-tank systems’ operational histories, and 5) local reconnaissance of spring/seep sites around the area, and sampling a local stream.
Submit your manuscript:
http://sciaeon.org/submit-paper
Contact us: geology@sciaeonopenaccess.com
Journal of Geology and Geoscience 