WITHDRAWN - Monitoring of Pollutant Movement Along a Line of Transect within the Freshwater Field of Umm Al-Aish, Kuwait

A large number of oil wells were damaged and put on fire in various oil fields of Kuwait during the 1991 Gulf War. The fresh groundwater resources of the Raudhatain and the Umm Al-Aish water fields in Kuwait have been affected by hydrocarbon compounds (HCs) derived from the oil released from these damaged wells and by salts derived from seawater that was used to extinguish the oil fire. Water quality data collected from a series of monitoring wells completed at different depths and arranged along a line of transect have been presented and evaluated to understand the spread of these pollutants in the vicinity of the Umm Al-Aish water field.

From an analysis of the data, it has been suggested that the salts derived from seawater and HCs moved together. The concentrations of the total dissolved solids (TDS) and HCs in the groundwater samples along the line of transect have, in general, increased over time though local variations in this trend have been observed. The concentrations of the pollutants, however, show a decreasing trend as one moves away from the oil lake along the line of transect. A reducing condition prevails in the locations where hydrocarbon pollution is significant. The periodic addition of the contaminants by the infiltration of run-off during the rainy season and mostly recalcitrant nature of the hydrocarbon contaminants are the possible reasons for the lack of overall attenuation of the pollution.

The presence of a source of pollutants (e.g., a non-aqueous phase petroleum liquid/NAPL) within the aquifer in the neighborhood of the wells P33U/P-33UA/P-33UB has been suggested on the basis of the depth distribution of pollutants at this site. The decrease in pollutant concentration with distance from these wells and the oil lake is, in all probability, due to dilution through mixing with uncontaminated water.