Evaluation of natural attenuation rate at a gasoline spill site

Contamination of groundwater by gasoline and other petroleum-derived hydrocarbons released from underground storage tanks (USTs) is a serious and widespread environmental problem. Natural attenuation is a passive remedial approach that depends upon natural processes to degrade and dissipate contaminants in soil and groundwater. Currently, in situ column technique, microcosm, and computer modeling have been applied for the natural attenuation rate calculation. However, the subsurface heterogeneity reduces the applicability of these techniques. In this study, a mass flux approach was used to calculate the contaminant mass reduction and field-scale decay rate at a gasoline spill site. The mass flux technique is a simplified mass balance procedure, which is accomplished using the differences in total contaminant mass flux across two cross-sections of the contaminant plume. The mass flux calculation shows that up to 87% of the dissolved total benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX) isomers removal was observed via natural attenuation at this site. The efficiency of natural biodegradation was evaluated by the in situ tracer method, and the first-order decay model was applied for the natural attenuation/biodegradation rate calculation. Results reveal that natural biodegradation was the major cause of the BTEX mass reduction among the natural attenuation processes, and approximately 88% of the BTEX removal was due to the natural biodegradation process. The calculated total BTEX first-order attenuation and biodegradation rates were 0.036 and 0.025% per day, respectively. Results suggest that the natural attenuation mechanisms can effectively contain the plume, and the mass flux method is useful in assessing the occurrence and efficiency of the natural attenuation process.