Table EIR 17. Known case of groundwater contamination (Florida Department of 

 Environmental Regulation 1980b) . 



Case name: Fertilizer plant contamination of the sand-and-gravel aquifer, 

 Escambia County. 



Case description: In Pensacola, FL, concentrated acid wastes from a fertilizer 

 plant were disposed of in unlined pits from about 1889 to 1957. The area is 

 underlain by a sand and gravel aquifer, with an approximate hydraulic 

 conductivity of 17.4 m/day (57 ft/day), to a depth of about three hundred 

 meters (a thousand ft). In the area, the sand and gravel aquifer is exten- 

 sively developed for industrial, municipal and domestic water supply. Ground 

 water development for public supply was formally centered to the SE . 

 of the plant site. Generally, the water table slopes to the east. The 

 contaminant plume migrated to the E. and S. General chemical characteris- 

 tics of the waste were low pH and high dissolved solids, hardness, sulfate, 

 flouride, calcium and magnesium. A municipal well located 1.8 km (1.1 mi) 

 E. of the disposal pits was abandoned in about 1958. The industry has since 

 abandoned use of the pits and now uses deep disposal wells. However, 

 field determinations of water samples collected in 1975 indicate that the 

 ground water is still contaminated. 



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