Groundwater quality as a geoindicator of organochlorine pesticide contamination after pesticide tomb reclamation: a case study of Franciszkowo, northwestern Poland

The need of surface soil removal during reclamation of the former underground landfills makes environmental monitoring difficult to perform. Environmental quality assessment after reclamation is very important because it provides information about: (1) the efficiency of remediation, (2) the rate of biodegradation of contaminants which were not removed during reclamation works and (3) the possible migration of contaminants from soil and permeable host rocks to surface waters and groundwaters. The concept of geoindicators, which was introduced to facilitate the assessment of environmental changes, can help assess environmental quality at sites previously subjected to reclamation. The groundwater quality is usually used as a geoindicator of inorganic contaminants. This concept was applied to find changes in organochlorine pesticide concentrations in groundwaters after toxic pesticide burial ground reclamation. The aim of this study was to monitor the concentrations of organochlorine pesticides and their metabolites in groundwaters at the former pesticide landfill site after its remediation. The study showed that very high concentrations of organochlorine pesticides and their metabolites in a contaminated soil had a small influence on pesticide concentrations in groundwaters and that this influence decreased in time. It has been 2 years since reclamation of the landfill took place, and the concentrations of organochlorine pesticides in groundwaters dropped to acceptable levels within the current environmental quality standards.