Oradea – remediation of an area contaminated by petroleum substances

Since mid-2018, the Company GEOtest, a.s. has been undertaking a project of remediation of an area contaminated by petroleum substances in the town of Oradea in Romania. It is an area of about 2 ha in size, which was used in the past as a terminal for petroleum substances.

Remediation is currently taking place according to the project. During the winter months of 2018, a biodegradation zone was built, having an area of 4,998 m², and the most contaminated part of soil was transported there from overburden and from excavations, which are located below the places in which tanks for holding petroleum substances were situated in the past. In the spring of 2019, the first cycle of bioremediation work began on site – aeration of soil and sprinkling with remediation solutions.

The above-mentioned excavations also serve for vacuum pumping of petroleum substances in free liquid phase and for establishing a hydraulic gradient. Water pumped from the excavations is purified in a remediation station and after having met the limits, it is infiltrated back into the drain farther away in the direction of groundwater flow, or sprayed onto the surface. This method ensures the washing of the rock environment at a wider scale of the whole site (21,009 m²).

In addition, 75 boreholes were drilled, designed for the pumping of contaminated water and the vacuum pumping of free liquid phase of petroleum hydrocarbons, as well as 80 boreholes for infiltration of purified water. This remediation circuit serves for the rapid elimination of petroleum substances in the places in which contamination of a point character has been identified using a survey.

Subsequently, bioremediation will run on site, as well as the 2nd cycle of on-site bioremediation, with the concurrent implementation of the above-mentioned activities.