Studies of Effects of Petroleum Products Spillage on Water and Soil at Mwavumbo in Kilifi County, Kenya.

Abstract

Oil spills on land and sea are environmental disasters that can cause both short and long-term pollution. These effects are very deleterious though several oil remediations have been developed, but still a wide spectrum of biotic community suffers the impact. This study sought to determine the effects of petrol, diesel and kerosene blend on both water and land. Blend of petrol, diesel and kerosene were poured into fixed volume of water and soil by consistently varying their quantities of volume. The pH of sampled soil and water with petrol, diesel and kerosene blend spillage were determined periodically over three months at interval of one month. Thermal pollution on land and water were determined by carrying out a set of experiments involving measurements of temperature. Absorbance and transmittance of the petroleum products blend was determined using spectrophotometer. The model of analysis of absorbance and transmittance of electromagnetic radiation was Beer's Lambert law. Porosities of pure soil samples together with soil blended with petrol, diesel and kerosene were determined using porosity model method. Permeability of pure soil samples together with soil blended with petrol, diesel and kerosene were determined using Darcy's method and analyzed using Darcy's law. From the analysis, petroleum products blend spillage on water and soil was found to raise temperature and pH of soil and water and also absorbance and transmittance of water. It was also established that petroleum products blend spillage on soil lowers porosity and soil aeration but increases permeability of soil. Use of solutions of surfactant to remediate soil with petroleum products spillage was effective in lowering permeability of soil