Experimental Investigation on the Performance of Hydraulic Barrier in Transport of Surface Contaminant to the Groundwater

Control of contaminant transport from surface pollutant resources such as landfills to groundwater is one of the most important challenges in environmental engineering. In this research a new technique was experimentally studied in order to control transportation of contaminants from surface pollutant to underground layers and groundwater. Therefore, a hydraulic barrier in the form of the clean sandy soil was placed in between two layers of clayey soil as a column test, and downward movement of contaminant from surface to a fresh water source located beneath column test was investigated. Contaminated source in the form of Cl-1 ions, under constant head was created and the hydraulic barrier was produced via fresh water injection wells, expanded in sandy layer. The results of this research revealed that providing injection wells with hydraulic barrier can reduce contaminant transport from surface to groundwater more than 90 percent. Furthermore, the results showed that the best performance of injection wells in the creation of hydraulic barrier happens while the hydraulic head in the wells and the level of contamination resource are being at the same level. It needs to be mentioned that the screen of injection well should be located at the middle of sandy layer.