Environmental Geotechnics Environmental Geotechnics 1 February 2014 Issue EG1

Volume 1 Issue EG1 Pages 6667 http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/envgeo.13.00086

Paper 13.00086
Environmental geotechnics: need for Received 29/08/2013; accepted 09/09/2013
regional approach Published online 06/01/2014
Keywords: environment/groundwater/pollution
Rao, Rao and Malini
ICE Publishing: All rights reserved

Environmental geotechnics:
needfor regional approach
1 Sudhakar M. Rao PhD 3 R. Malini BEng
Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Research Student, Centre for Sustainable Technologies, Indian
Bangalore, India Institute of Science, Bangalore, India
2 P. Raghuveer Rao MSc (Eng)
Research Student, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of
Science, Bangalore, India

1 2 3

Environmental journals with a focus on anthropogenic hazards deal with the science of the problem and/or practices to
mitigate them. The ICE journal Environmental Geotechnics is more exclusive as its predominant focus is on the interactions
of geological materials with water/atmosphere/waste/chemicals from a science and engineering perspective. The focus
on geological materials brings an important dimension to the fore as the nature/type of geological materials varies with
geography that, in turn, would have a strong bearing on the materials interactions. To obtain meaningful solutions,
numerical models and laboratory experiments must adopt local geological and geochemical settings rather than use
non-specific site information. The relevance of a regional approach in addressing geoenvironmental engineering
problems is illustrated using two examples from an Indian context.

Notation by installing a lysimeter at 2m depth at the proposed NSDF site.

Kd distribution coefficient
NSDF near surface disposal facility
N2O nitrous oxide
Discussion
The first example pertains to modelling strontium transport through
sub-soil for a proposed near-surface disposal facility (NSDF) at
Kalpakkam situated between Chennai and Pondicherry on the
Coromandel Coast. Kalpakkam is significant because it hosts the
Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) built by the Department of
Atomic Energy (Deepthi et al., 2013). As part of the exercise, it was
important to determine the Kd (distribution coefficient) parameter
for strontium retention by the soil underlying the proposed NSDF.
Studies (Deepthi et al., 2013) indicate that the soil sediments at
Kalpakkam are residually derived from granite/gneiss or arise from
a sedimentary source. Residual soils derived from granite/gneiss
have much lower dissolved salts in pore water than sedimentary
marine soils. For example, red soils formed over the gneissic terrain
in Bangalore District, India, have a pore-water salinity of 130mg/L,
while a sedimentary marine clay from the southwest coast of India
has a pore-water salinity of 9400mg/L (Rao et al., 1990, 2013a).
The selection of appropriate dissolved salt concentration in soil pore
water was important in designing suitable co-ion concentrations in
strontium batch adsorption experiments. The seasonal variations
in pore-water chemistry were monitored over a 3-month period
X-ray diffraction analysis showed the presence of illite in the fine
(<75m) soil fraction. The predominant presence of calcium (72
to 365mg/L), sodium (180 to 454mg/L) and magnesium (30 to
143mg/L) ions was measured in the soil pore water. Also, large
total dissolved solids (884 to 2600mg/L) characterised the soil pore
water. Batch-strontium adsorption experiments (initial strontium
concentration 10mg/L, soil sample from 2m depth) were designed
to reproduce co-ion concentrations in the field. The Kd values for
strontium adsorption (Table 1) indicate that calcium and magnesium
ions in pore water will influence strontium retention and transport
by soil underlying the proposed NSDF. More importantly, the
results bring the importance of performing region-specific field
measurements for environmentally sensitive projects, which,
otherwise, would lead to errors in modelling contaminant transport.
Another example of specific geoenvironmental issue is the biological
degradation of nitrates in the vadose zone. On-site sanitation is
practiced in large parts of India that release nitrate from biological
oxidation of ammonium ions into the underlying vadose zone
deposit (Rao et al., 2013b). During nitrate transport to an aquifer, the
presence of a suitable electron donor (organic carbon), deficiency in
dissolved oxygen and capable bacterial population facilitate nitrate
degradation to nitrous oxide (N2O), an important greenhouse gas
(Saggar et al., 2013). Denitrification experiments with unsaturated
sand specimen showed a 72% conversion to gaseous nitrogen after

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Environmental Geotechnics Environmental geotechnics: need for
Volume 1 Issue EG1 regional approach
Rao, Rao and Malini

problems and the response to them from knowledge drawn across

Calcium Kd: mL/g Magnesium Kd: mL/g Sodium Kd: mL/g geographical boundaries.
co-ion: co-ion: co-ion:
mg/L mg/L mg/L
Acknowledgement
50 45.1 20 56.9 200 95.6
The authors wish to thank the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board,
100 21.7 50 22.9 300 70.9
Government of India, for sponsoring the research project Lysimeter
500 1.8 100 8.8 500 48
based sub-surface investigation to assess the transport behaviour of
Table 1. Influence of co-ions on Kd values for strontium retention contaminants in the vadose zone surrounding NSDF at Kalpakkam
whose results are presented in this paper.

References
80
Deepthi K, Usha N, Muthulakshmi AL, Ferrer VA, Venugopalan
% Conversion to gaseous nitrogen

70 VP and Narasimhan SV (2013) Geochemical characteristics

60 and depositional environment of Kalpakkam, southeast coast
Initial nitrate in pore water: 99 mg/L of India. Environmental Earth Science 69(7): 23572364.
50 Void ratio of sand: 107
Degree of saturation: 73% Rao SM, Sridhran A and Chandrakaran S (1990) Engineering
40 Natural organic content of sand: 041%
Temperature: 40C behaviour of uplifted-smectite-rich Cochin and Mangalore
30 marine clays. Marine Geotechnology 9(4): 243259.
20 Rao SM, Gaurave K and Sarvanan A (2013a) Lead retention
by soils at field moisture contents. Soil and Sediment
10
Contamination: An International Journal 22(2): 208222.
0 Rao SM, Sekhar M and Raghuveer Rao P (2013b) Impact of
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Time: h pit-toilet leachate on groundwater chemistry and role of
vadose zone in removal of nitrate and E. coli pollutants in
Figure 1. Biological conversion of nitrate to gaseous nitrogen Kolar District, Karnataka, India. Environmental Earth Science
68(4): 927938.
Saggar S, Jha N, Deslippe J et al. (2013) Denitrification and
48h of equilibration (Figure 1), underlining the need to focus on
N2O:N2 production in temperate grasslands: processes,
vadose zone biological reactions as greenhouse gas emitters in
measurements, modeling and mitigating negative impacts.
developing nations of Asia and Africa that practise on-site sanitation.
Science of the Total Environment 465(1): 173195.
In summary, it is hoped that the new journal will serve as a
platform to highlight regional complexities in geoenvironmental

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