Remediation of Hydrocarbon Contamination in Drinking Water
In 2015, a member of the public in Ugie tasted fuel in the town's water supply. The water supply is from the Wildebeest River, which borders the town on the northern side. Diesel product outflow was detected at a point source, just above the water intake. The matter was elevated to the Departments of Environmental Affairs and Water Affairs. They notified all the fuel service providers in Ugie to investigate their infrastructure and if contamination was found, to remediate. Shorten Motors, one of the fuel service stations, appointed SRK to investigate their site. The work involved the drilling of monitoring wells to delineate the FPP and dissolved plumes and to characterise the area between Shorten Motors and the diesel outflow point, which is situated c. 400 m down gradient. An FPP cut-off trench was constructed across the perceived pathway to intersect any FPP migrating towards the river. FPP recovery was done in the wells that contained FPP.
