Migration and natural fate of a coal tar creosote plume: 1. Overview and plume development

A volume of sand containing coal tar creosote was emplaced below the water table at CFB Borden to investigate natural attenuation processes for complex biodegradable mixtures. Coal tar creosote is a mixture of more than 200 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heterocyclic compounds and phenolic compounds. A representative group of seven compounds was selected for detailed study: phenol, m-xylene, naphthalene, phenanthrene, 1-methylnaphthalene, dibenzofuran and carbazole. Movement of groundwater through the source led to the development of a dissolved organic plume, which was studied over a 4-year period. Qualitative plume observations and mass balance calculations indicated two key conclusions: (1) compounds from the same source can display distinctly different patterns of plume development and (2) mass transformation was a major influence on plume behaviour for all observed compounds.