Assessment and Remediation of Soils Contaminated With Gasoline

An experimental program was undertaken to evaluate the change in behaviour of soils due to interaction with gasoline. Locally available soils classified as clay with low plasticity (CL) and poorly graded sand (SP) were used for the study. Laboratories studies were conducted on virgin (uncontaminated) soil samples and soil samples simulated to varying degrees of contamination (i.e. 3%, 6% and 9% by dry weight of soil) to compare the geotechnical properties before and after contamination. The engineering properties were found to be altered upon contamination. Surfactant (Sodium dedecyl sulphate, SDS) enhanced washing was employed to decontaminate the soils. It was observed that the original geotechnical properties of soils could be almost restored (percentage variation ranging from 0 to 15) upon decontamination with SDS at optimum dosage.