LTR - Ep 57 - How Does Ground Water Get Contaminated?

In this 57th episode, I discuss How Does Ground Water Get Contaminated?

Ground Water typically gets contaminated through soil seeping ro leaching contamination from the soil down into the Ground Water as gravity pulls down on it.  Sometimes there is a direct line from the surface to get contamination directly into the Ground Water, like an old water well.

The typical sources of Ground Water Contamination are from Agricultural Runoff, Leaking Storage Tanks and Spills, Failing Septic Tanks, Improper Waste Disposal and from Faulty Wells.  Most of these common sources involve the travel of the contamination through the soil and down into the Ground Water then being mobile in the aquifers, but in the cases like Old Water Wells, they can be a more direct path for the contamination to get to the Ground Water and into the Deeper Aquifers.  In all cases, the remediation of Ground Water is complex and expensive.

"Thank You" for tuning in and to Our Ongoing Sponsor Hanby Environmental for the continued support of our podcast having a positive impact on The Environmental Remediation Industry!

Send in any future podcast topics or questions to CFator@LetsTalkRemediation.com and follow us on FaceBook, Linkedin and X.

If you are not following this podcast and are in the Remediation Space, "You SHOULD Be!"

Also, if you are in The Remediation Industry and are interested in telling your story, we are looking for Experts to interview for future podcast episodes.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:28

Hey there, let's talk remediation. This is your host, Charles Fader, and this is our 57th episode of Let's Talk Remediation. Our 57th episode is brought to us by our ongoing sponsor, Hambi Environmental. So Hambi Environmental is a manufacturer of field test kits, uh, providing immediate results that are economical and accurate for uh total petroleum hydrocarbons, aromatics, uh PFAS and PFAS, and uh chlorides. So thank you, Hambi Environmental, for your ongoing support of this podcast. Let's talk remediation, where we're trying to have a positive impact on the environmental remediation industry. And with that, let's get started with our 57th episode, which the topic is how does groundwater get contaminated? And so this topic came to mind as you know I talk to different people, you know, whether they deal in the remediation of water, groundwater, soil, and oftentimes I, you know, hear that people's focus is on water specifically and not so much on soil. Um and then vice versa, sometimes in soil where uh they don't focus so much on water. And while I get that piece of it, that just means typically they're going to address the contaminated soil very, very quickly. Um I really don't quite understand when people say they only focus on uh water remediation. Now, obviously, spills in the ocean uh is a big body of water, I can understand that concept. But when you're talking about water such as groundwater, which is typically uh what you you hear uh remediation uh because I mean if it was a spill in the ocean, that's more of an emergency response rather than a remediation. Remediation typically is of say groundwater contamination, and so uh, you know, typically the re the thought that came to mind about why I should have this topic on how does groundwater get contaminated is because I feel like groundwater gets contaminated through soil. So if you're going to be focusing on remediation of groundwater, you need to also be focusing on the remediation of the soil as well. So that's the reason why I came up with the topic today for uh how does groundwater get contaminated. And with that, groundwater uh becomes polluted when or contem contaminants on the surface, typically soil surface, of course, or in the soil mix with water and seep or leach downward through permeal uh permeable layers in into aquifers. Aquifers are how water travels uh beneath the surface, and that's called groundwater. Uh this pollution is primarily driven by human activities and everyday practices. So what this means is that typical human activities are causing of accidents or spills, and the longer that those accidents or spills sit there, um, it's going to seep down or leach uh through the different types of soil and ultimately end up into the groundwater. And so that's how we get to groundwater contamination. And so the most common ways groundwater becomes polluted, it could be from agricultural runoff, where you know farmers use uh different uh pesticides and fertilizers, uh, and these accumulate in the soil, and then the rain will carry the runoff, or um, the irrigation systems used to grow uh the the vegetation that the farmers are growing, and that uh the crops that irrigation will cause runoff the same way rain would, and then it enters, you know, through the soil and it seeps down and ends into the water table. So um that's typically how that would come from agricultural runoff, and then also leaking storage tanks and spills, leaking storage tanks like at an industrial sites or gas stations or even private properties, uh, often like this, particularly in in colder regions uh where they have heating oil, those store fuels or chemicals in these underground tanks or above ground tanks for that matter. And over time the tanks can corrode and they leak the uh the you know what what's meant to be stored in the tank, uh, the hazardous substance directly into the soil, and then of course it goes through the normal practice of going through the soil and seeping down into the groundwater. So agricultural runoff and leaking storage tanks and spills uh are common ways that groundwater gets uh contaminated or polluted. Um also uh uh you know that's thinking more along the lines of say, you know, pesticides or fuels, but also there's other types of contaminants that get into the groundwater, and these can be from say septic tanks that are failing. You know, residential septic tanks can can leak bacteria or viruses or even household chemicals into the subsurface and through the soil and down into the water. And you know, see the common theme here again is through the soil into the water. Uh and if they're not uh maintained or inspected properly, similar to the storage tanks where they have tank tightness tests, same thing can happen here with a septic system. You can, you know, in the maintenance or the inspection process, you can have tank tightness tests just to, you know, pressure tests to make sure that they're they're not failing or leaking, and that's uh one way to prevent that. Uh another common uh way groundwater can become uh contaminated is through the improper uh disposal of waste. You know, toxic waste from factories or or poorly managed landfills uh can seep into the ground, obviously into the soil, releasing, you know, chemicals and and and metals and other contaminants into the aquifers. Uh and so again, uh that common theme's coming up again, it's seeping through or leaching through the soil and getting down into you know the aquifers or where the groundwater is flowing. Um also uh old wells, you know, older deteriorating water wells can act as uh direct pathways, uh allowing contaminated surface water or shallow uh polluted water to bypass natural soil filtration and enter deeper protected aquifers. Um so where water wells are already in place, that's a that's a direct line of you know, it's basically bypassing the soil because the the well wasn't put in place to actually draw the water up for you know residential use, for example. And so, you know, if they're uh, you know, old or deteriorating, um, they act as direct pathways for, you know, uh contamination to flow down to the aquifers. So it could be contaminated s surface water or even shallow uh water uh that is above the aquifers can seep down or leash through again the soil and get into the deeper aquifers. Um because uh the ground or the soil typically acts as a natural filter for groundwater con uh uh groundwater contamination can often go unnoticed until it's actually drawn up into a well or into a municipal water supply because um you know it it's seeped down through the soil and and ultimately gets down into the deep aquifer and at that point it's down there and since it's it's left the soil and seeped or leached down, um, you know, there doesn't appear that there's anything wrong and until uh until that water is either drawn up into a well or uh into a water supply source, uh that that contamination is then down into the aquifers in the groundwater, and it can it can go unnoticed, you know, until it's actually used and found. So I mean uh c cleaning uh a polluted aquifer, on the other hand, i it since it's you know, it's very complex because it's so deep. So uh it it's very complex to try to clean groundwater from a deep aquifer. And it's gonna be very, very expensive as well. So you know, the the best uh the best approach is to actually prevent the uh groundwater contamination from getting down into those aquifers. So to recap again, you know, uh contaminants uh get to the groundwater and contaminate the groundwater typically through soil from the surface, they leach down or seep down as gravity pulls it down, and ultimately it gets down into the groundwater in the aquifers. And uh the most common ways this happened is from agricultural runoff, which is typically you know, fertilizers and pesticides that you know, and it's carried either by the rain or the irrigation so that that makes it you know mobile and it it runs off quickly, and then of course it settles in the soil and and then goes through the soil downward and it ultimately contaminates the groundwater. Um then you have your storage tanks, which could be uh under underground storage tanks or above ground storage tanks, and they deteriorate and leak or they have spills, and uh, you know, and that it is a again drops it down from from the storage tank into the soil and leaches downward as gravity works on it, pulls it down into the groundwater, and then it travels in the aquifers down there. And then of course, uh septic systems, where you know, again, tank tightness is the important thing there to make sure that the tank the septic tank is not leaking, and uh that way it doesn't uh do the same thing, leak into the soil and into the groundwater. Uh, and then making sure that, you know, uh waste disposal uh is done properly as opposed to improper, and improper waste uh waste disposal could ha again leach down through the soil and into the groundwater, and that can happen, you know, from factories or from poorly managed landfills. And then of course we talked about the faulty wells where they're old wells with a direct line of you know having either surface water or shallow water go through the old well or deteriorating well and have a direct path, uh for the most part skipping the the soil leaching, going straight into the aquifer. So those are the most common ways groundwater gets polluted, agricultural runoff, storage tanks and spills, uh uh f failing septic systems, improper waste disposal and faulty wells. So uh that's all I really wanted to cover on that today is that the thought process behind how does groundwater get contaminated? Well, most of the time it's through the leaching going through the soil, and so along those lines is you can bet if you have contaminated groundwater, you likely have contaminated soil is above the groundwater, and that's how it got there. And so while the bulk of it may have gotten seeped down or leached down through the soil and into the groundwater, and then it becomes very mobile, and then it's hard. You know, it's very hard and complex to treat uh and clean and remediate that that groundwater. However, again, all the soil above that where the source it's contaminated as well, it needs to be addressed. So that's just something to keep in mind, and that's why I wanted to have a topic today of how does groundwater get contaminated. So that was our 57th episode. Uh, again, I always say towards the end of these episodes is that if you have a topic you'd like for us to address or a specific question you'd like for us to address on a future podcast, don't hesitate to reach out. Uh send me, drop me an email at C Fader, that's C Frank A-T-O-R. C Fader at Let's Talk Remediation.com, and I'll get that done. And with that, I thank you for tuning in, and thank you, Hambi Environmental, our ongoing sponsor. And with that, I'm your host, Charles Fader, and I'm out.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

But the fun doesn't have to stop easy. If you have any questions, suggestions, feedback,