Electrical methods of detecting contaminated groundwater at the stringfellow waste disposal site, riverside county, California

At the Stringfellow Class I waste-disposal site near Riverside, California, the influence of variations in groundwater chemistry and saturation on electrical measurements made from the surface was tested Spontaneous potential, D C electrical sounding, dipole-dipole resistivity profiles, and mise-a-la-masse measurements were employed to investigate the sub-surface migration of the acidic fluids deposited in this site between 1956 and 1972 Mise-a-la-masse exploration conducted at the downstream edge of the site detected a major anomaly which, on excavation, proved to be the signature of a previously unsuspected leak from the surface disposal ponds on the site Downstream from the site, a dipole-dipole profile and electrical soundings correlate well with electrical conductivity of groundwater obtained from monitoring wells This study demonstrates that geophysical methods may be used to search for and map leaks from toxic chemical waste dumps