Mass transport modelling of total organic carbon in groundwater to determine the location of petroleum fuel pollutant sources in the area of Jlagran, Yogyakarta City, Indonesia

Abstract

Hydrocarbon pollution in the Jlagran area's groundwater, Yogyakarta City, has been going on for more than 20 years. So far, the pollution source has been inferred from a leak in the diesel fuel storage tank from near Train Station. This study aims to prove the claim that the source of hydrocarbon pollutants comes from the location of the fuel storage tank or not. This research was conducted by collecting data on hydrogeological aspects and total organic carbon (TOC) concentration in groundwater, followed by modeling flow and mass transport using Visual Modlfow MT3DMS. The modeling results show that the contamination plume distribution in groundwater at the recent time cannot be caused by only one point source, namely the fuel oil storage tank's location, but also may come from the train maintenance area. It is estimated on this area that the disposal of train maintenance waste of hydrocarbon as a result of poor practices for at least two decades has been developing a residual hydrocarbon zone in the unsaturated zone, and now potentially seeped into the aquifer and also contribute as a source of hydrocarbon pollutant to groundwater.