Investigations at Sites Contaminated with Dense, Non-Aqueous Phase Liquids (NAPLs)

Increasingly, ground water supplies are being found to be contaminated with organic substances. Depending on the nature of these substances and the method by which they were introduced into the environment, they may form a second, dense liquid phase. Several such cases have been reported in the recent literature. In other cases, such a second phase might have actually been present but was not found because the principles governing its distribution were not understood and no effort was made to look for it. In this case, the undetected material could continue to migrate and act as a source of dissolved organics.
This article reviews the general principles governing the behavior of dense, immiscible second-phase organic liquids in both the unsaturated and saturated zones, based primarily on the petroleum industry literature for primary hydrocarbon migration and on the oil spill literature. This specialized knowledge can be used to conduct a meaningful and efficient investigation of such contamination sites and can also be used to select and implement successful remedial measures. Several actual case studies applying the principles of multi-phase flow are also presented.