Geophysical investigations in a dismissed industrial site: Ex-Esso (Trieste, Italy)

The study area is a former polluted industrial area, already home of coastal oil refinery and deposit of hydrocarbons, for which there is a reclamation project. It is owned by the Port Authority of Trieste, in the north-east of the Adriatic sea, Italy. The soils of this industrial area are soaked with hydrocarbons. In 2004, the engineering company Geosyntech of Trieste has executed a plan of environmental characterization of the area, presenting the first plan of remediation measures for the safety of the territory. We present the results of a multidisciplinary geophysical survey of the area called Ex-Esso, carried out to define the geometry of the bedrock and the stratigraphic sequence of the surface sediments to provide new information regarding the execution of a containment wall to restrain pollutants and assess the impact of the barrier on the movement of groundwater, analysis carried out with modeling for the analysis of the evolution of the raising of the groundwater level and the design of appropriate drainage.