Knowledge Bank

Contamination of surface- and ground-water resources, owing to the disposal of oilfield brines and other industrial high-chloride waste waters, has long been a major problem in many areas in Ohio. A major cause of pollution is the use of brine "evaporation" pits. Although the chloride content in many contaminated areas has decreased with time by several orders of magnitude due to natural cleansing, concentrations in other areas have increased. The time at which a contaminated area will return to its original condition can not be accurately determined, because natural flushing depends on several hydrogeologic factors as well as the amount and rate of infiltration of rain.