Volatilisation of aromatic hydrocarbons from soil: Part II, Fluxes from coal tar contaminated soils residing below the soil surface

The non-steady-state fluxes of aromatic hydrocarbons from coal tar contaminated soil, placed below a 5 cm deep layer of uncontaminated soil, were measured in the laboratory over a period of 53 days. The contaminated soil originated from a former gasworks site and contained concentrations of 11 selected aromatic hydrocarbons between 50 to 840 µg/cm3.

Where the microbial activity was inhibited, the fluxes stabilized on a semi-steady-state level for the monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, naphthalene and 1-methylnaphthalene after a period of 10–20 days. Fluxes of acenaphthene and fluorene were only measurable in an experiment that utilized a cover soil with a low organic content.

The fluxes were predicted by a numerical model assuming that the compounds acted independently of each other and that local equilibrium between the air, water, and sorbed phases existed. The model overestimated the fluxes for all the detected aromatic hydrocarbons by a factor of 1.3 to 12. When the cover soil was adapted to degrade naphthalene, the fluxes of naphthalene and 1-methylnaphthalene approached the detection limit after 5 to 8 days.

Thereafter the fluxes of these two compounds were less than predicted by the model employing half-life values of 0.5 and 1 day for naphthalene and 1-methylnaphthalene respectively.