Identification and verification of polluted areas in the dolomitic area of the PWV area

Abstract

The dolomitic formation of the Transvaal Sequence is one of the most important sources of groundwater within South Africa. Pollutants have already been identified at certain localities in recent studies, and this project was initiated because of the awareness of the need for the conservation of this resource. It was planned that boreholes identified as polluted were to be resampled to verify the existence of such pollution. This proved difficult as the boreholes had to be located on a coordinate basis alone, and very often the nearest borehole to the given coordinates was sampled. It could not be said with certainty that the original borehole was being resampled. A second phase of sampling was initiated in the Klip River/Natalspruit region which had previously been identified as a polluted area by Simonis in 1989. Field maps were available together with historic data, and this provided a much sounder basis around which the project could be developed. As a consequence of this second phase two areas were chosen for more detailed investigation.

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