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In the 1990’s sometimes a phenomenon was encountered
during studies about the contaminated groundwater coming from landfill sites
that the areal distribution of the specific electrical resistance and the
polarizability of the groundwater differed considerably. Considering this
finding it could be a reasonable assumption that induced polarization
measurements could provide useful supplementary information for the widely used
resistance methods in groundwater research, which could be applicable in environmental
research as well.
Following this philosophy in 1996 the ELGI, the
VITUKI TR and our company submitted a joint tender to the former Committee of
National Technical Development (OMFB) with the title “Induced polarization in
the protection of water resources”. The aim of the tender was to prove, support
and promote the applicability of the induced polarization method in addition to
other geophysical, mainly geoelectrical methods in the research of water
reservoir formations.
The experiments carried out in accordance of
the tender were comparable with other case studies with different geological
conditions in Hungary (waste storage) and in Germany (settling tank). The
results showed that the polarization increases with the reduction of the
specific electrical resistivity (and increase of the salt concentration used in
the experiments), however the rate of the change in the two parameters is not
identical, the relationship between the two parameters is not linear.
The rate of polarizability could provide
important additional information in the recognition of “medium” contaminated
conditions, thus helping in the identification of deteriorating trends. This
way it is possible to plan and make the necessary preventing measures
relatively prior to the occurrence of the severe contaminated conditions.