Chloride Contamination on the Groundwater, Soil and Plants Coursework

Chloride Contamination on the Groundwater, Soil and Plants - Coursework Example Water from sumps has been taken for measuring the surface water content and from deeper wells for sub surface water salinity. Finally, the soil was also sampled and the salinity of the soil was also measured. This was found to still be elevated though it has come down drastically on an average in all the three cases. The sub surface water sample was normally taken after bailing out the water in the sampling wells. Similarly, the soil samples are taken at a depth of 60 centimetres in line with the standard soil sampling technique. Surface water samples were picked up from the sump that was available. The sampled values were then used for analysis to find out the rate of chloride reduction in the sub surface water and soil. This would help in indicating to what extent the vegetation can grow in the soil at the heath. It was found that the soil conditions are not particularly, right for the tree growth. Though, even up to 20000 ppm in the tree, it was found that the presence of chloride may not adversely affect tree growth. The ideal ppm, however, is 4 to 8 ppm and that is the figure really looked at for vegetation to thrive anywhere. It is therefore, important that the work is completed by reducing the presence of chlorides further. ... 2. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 3. DEDICATION 4. GENERAL INTRODUCTION The following placement project was carried out within the British Petroleum (BP), at Wytch Farm, which is an oil field and oil and natural gas processing facility in the Purbeck district of Dorset, England from 11th June to 1st September 2007. 4.1 Existing situation The Wytch Farm Oilfield, is the largest known onshore field in the UK, it lies beneath the southern shores of Poole harbour in an area of outstanding natural beauty famous for its landscape, ecology and amenity value (BP Petroleum Development, 1986). The Wytch Farm Oilfield, with its approximately 300 million barrels of recoverable oil, is a useful to the oil industry and to the local and national economy. It produces in present time around 70,000 barrels (approximately 11,365,000 litres) of oil per day. The oilfield consists of two major reservoirs, the shallower Birdport reservoir at 900 meters under the surface (BP Exploration, 1994) this reservoir was discovered in 1974, and later, it was developed to produce 4,000 barrels of crude oil per day (BP Petroleum Development, 1986). The larger and more productive reservoir is Sherwood reservoir, which is about 1500 meters below the surface (BP Exploration, 1994). The deeper reservoir (Sherwood reservoir) was discovered in 1978 but it remains under-developed. Production testing from one Sherwood well has increased and nowadays production is about 5,500 barrels of oil per day (BP Petroleum Development, 1986). The location of Wytch Farm is on the southern shores of Pool Harbour. This area is sensitive landscape that includes a number of conversation designations. Crude oil is extracted from the Wytch Farm, Wareham and Kimmeridge