VADOSE ZONE STUDIES AT AN INDUSTRIAL CONTAMINATED SITE: THE VADOSE ZONE MONITORING SYSTEM AND CROSS-HOLE GEOPHYSICS

In situ vadose zone characterization is essential to improve risk characterization and remediation measures for soil and groundwater contamination. However, most available technologies have been developed in the context of agricultural soils. Most of these methodologies are not applicable at industrial sites, where soils and contamination
differ in origin and composition. In addition, they are applicable only in the first meters of soils, leaving deeper vadose zones with lack of information, in particular on field scale heterogeneity.
To overcome such difficulties, a vadose zone experiment has been setup at a former industrial site in Belgium.
Industrial activities carried out on site left a legacy of soil and groundwater contamination in BTEX, PAH, cyanide and heavy metals. The experiment involves the combination of two techniques: the Vadose Zone Monitoring System (VMS) and cross-hole geophysics.
The VMS allows continuous measurements of water content at different depths of the vadose zone (Dahan et al., 2009). In addition, it provides the possibility of pore water sampling at different depths. The system is formed by a flexible sleeve installed in a slanted borehole (Fig. 1) and containing monitoring units along its depth (Fig. 2). The flexible sleeve contains three types of monitoring units in the vadose zone: Time Domain Transmissometry (TDT), which allows water content measurements; Vadose Sampling Ports (VSP), used for collecting water samples coming from the matrix; and the Fracture Samplers (FS), which are used for retrieving water samples from the fractures. Cross-hole electrical tomography measurements are carried providing detailed spatial patterns about electrical properties of the subsurface. Such properties are related with subsurface heterogeneities, water content and solute concentrations.
Two VMS were installed on site, together with four vertical boreholes containing electrodes for geophysical measurements. The site has been monitored under natural recharge conditions during the summer, autumn and winter. Results show reactions in the soil at depths up to 6m as a consequence of rainfall infiltration and groundwater level fluctuations. In addition, the chemistry of the soil water changes with depth and water infiltration. Background images obtained from geophysical measurements show a highly conductive subsurface due to the lithologies and the high mineralization of the water in the vadose zone. The combination of cross-hole geophysics with the VMS has provided an effective tool for characterizing the chemistry and the structure of the vadose zone.