Estimating soil pollution at gasworks sites

Peter O. de Vries and Koen R. Weytingh

Abstract

An analysis was performed to determine whether the amount of pollution at gasworks sites could be correlated with the difference between the amounts of waste or by-products that were produced, processed and sold in the past. Data on the amounts produced were derived from mass balances,

yields in laboratory experiments in the past, and descriptions in text-books and manuals. Data on amounts processed and sold were collected from annual reports and trading accounts of the former gasworks. It is concluded that uncertainties in these amounts are of the same order of magnitude as

current pollution amounts. So it is not possible to detect gaps in soil surveys in this way. This analysis however has given valuable insights into differences in the amounts of pollution between sites, in the proportions between tar, gas-water and bog iron that were produced, and shows that gas-water might have been an important source of groundwater contamination.

Key words: bog iron production, gaswater production, gasworks annual reports, mass balance, tar

production

© 2007 EPP Publications Ltd

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Article code 738