Organochlorine contamination of groundwater by pulp and paper mill effluent in South Australia

In June 1989, a contaminated private well was identified close to a drain which carries pulp and paper mill effluent to Lake Bonney, in the southeast of South Australia. Investigations over a period of two-and-half years involving the construction of 25 investigation wells in three stages were carried out. The initial stage confirmed that the drain was the source of the problem. The results of sampling at seven discreet sites indicated that there is one site with extensive groundwater contamination (the site where the problem was first identified), and one site with significant contamination close to Lake Bonney. At the site with extensive contamination it is concluded that the upper 10 m of the local unconfined aquifer is contaminated. The actual extent of the plume is at least 900 m parallel with the drain and at least 250 m away from the drain. Contaminants identified include the organochlorine solvents chloroform, tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene, as well as other compounds typical of pulp mill effluent. The hydraulic relationship between the drain and groundwater was investigated and this confirmed that the areas where contamination was found were those with the highest pollution potential on hydraulic grounds. lt is apparent that there has been no serious impact on beneficial use of the groundwater resource, although one farmer has had to replace two stock supply wells. The pulp and paper mill is close to completion of a major redevelopment, including installation of a chemical recovery process. A consequence of this is that most of the pollutants are now being burnt. Over the last three years, the mill has also changed from chlorine bleaching to a peroxide process, which has eliminated the bulk of the organochlorines in the effluent. Organochlorine solvents are still used as cleaning agents, but alternatives are being actively sought. A number of options for management of the problem ranging from basic monitoring to remediation of the hot spot are discussed.

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Identification info

Date (Publication)
1993-01-01T00:00:00
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/81348

Cited responsible party
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Publisher

Australian Geological Survey Organisation

 Canberra
Author

Emmett, A.J.

 1
Name

AGSO Journal of Australian Geology and Geophysics

Issue identification

14:2-3:183-191

Point of contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Custodian

Corp
Owner

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Custodian

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice
Topic category
  • Geoscientific information

Extent

N
S
E
W


Maintenance and update frequency
Unknown

Resource format

Title

Product data repository: Various Formats

Website

Data Store directory containing the digital product files

Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes

Keywords

  • GA Publication

  • Journal

Keywords

  • SA

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

  • Earth Sciences

Keywords

  • Published_External

Resource constraints

Title

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Alternate title

CC-BY

Edition

4.0

Website

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

Access constraints
License
Use constraints
License

Resource constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified
Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distribution Information

Distributor contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Distributor

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice
OnLine resource

Journal article (pdf)

Journal article (pdf)

Distribution format

  • pdf

Resource lineage

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Unknown

Hierarchy level
Non geographic dataset
Other

GA Publication

Description

Source data not available.

Metadata constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/fae9173a-7121-71e4-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Title

GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice

Type of resource

Resource scope
Document
Name

AGSO BMR Journal

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/81348

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/fae9173a-7121-71e4-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Date info (Revision)
2018-04-20T06:07:51
Date info (Creation)
2014-06-03T00:00:00

Metadata standard

Title

AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-3

Title

Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014

Edition

Version 2.0, September 2018

Citation identifier
https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551

 
 

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W



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