Assessment of hazardous soils contamination and remediation actions in Burgan oil field-Kuwait

Abstract EN

The environment in Kuwait had suffered a massive damage by the Iraqi troops during the 1990-1991 military invasion.

734 oil wells were damaged and burned causing huge amount of oil spills on the soil surface and subsurface.

Most of the soil around the oil fields was affected by hazardous contamination.

This study aims to measure the extent of contaminated soil and to determine the contaminant composition, then we choose a suitable remediation action for rehabilitation of Kuwait's desert environment and ecosystem.

Site soil samples taken from five well heads located in Burgan's field were investigated to measure the depth of the contaminated soil and its composition.

The results showed that the contaminated soil was identified, wellhead number three had the deepest contamination of 4.3 meters, and the shallowest depth of 1.2 meter was found at the wellhead pit number one.

The number of petroleum hydrocarbons resided in the soil can cause a serious health risk.

The necessary remediation actions were made using different quantities and mixing of nutrients.

Furthermore, epidemiology studies are needed to monitor the long-term positive impacts of the remediation actions for the pollutants on the ecology, environment, and human health.