Oil spill contamination of Ground water in Chunnakam Aquifer, Jaffna, Srilanka

Abstract

The Chunnakam aquifer has high capacity and contains acceptable quality water for drinking and other usages. Water supplies are generated from this area. Fuel smell had been continuously observed in Chunnakam water intake site. The intake site is located very close to the Chunnakam fossil fuel power station, and on analysis, the intake well and the adjacent wells showed oil contamination. A research study was carried out during the period November 2013 to August 2014. The total number of 150 wells was analyzed, of these 109 (73%) wells have shown higher oil level than the Srilankan standard 614(1983) of 1.0 mg/l, 07 (4%) wells were under the limit and 34 wells (23%) were not contaminated with oil and grease. From the analysis the oil and grease contamination was observed within 1.5 km surrounding of the power station. The high oil and grease concentration layers were observed in the surrounding of the Chunnakam power station area.