Numerical simulation and prediction of groundwater pollution caused by the leakage of sulphuric acid storage tank with GMS model

Abstract

Because of the concentration of SO42- in the sulfuric acid tank is extremely high, the leakage of sulphuric acid storage tank is great harm to groundwater environment. Once the accident of leakage take place, the drinking water sources of residents around the leak point will be greatly polluted. In order to find out the severity of groundwater pollution and the migration of pollutants after leakage, a GMS software was used to simulate and predict. During simulation, the scope of the simulation area and its hydrogeological conditions were determined by hydrogeological surveying, mapping and drilling. The parameters used in the simulation are obtained from field tests. The simulation results show that the concentration of SO42-at the central pollution halo is as high as 788050 mg/L after 27.39 years of the leakage accident happened. Due to the low permeability of the formations, the decontamination effect of the polluted halo mainly depends on the slow dilution of aquifer. The process of the completely purifying pollutants in groundwater will takes a long time.