Possibilities of integrated geophysical techniques to detect LNAPL plumes in abandoned Soviet military areas: Case history from the cretaceous of Bohemia

The history of soviet military areas in the Central and Eastem Europe started in 50 ties and 60 ties of this century. The military techniques (heavy lorries, tanks, fighters) needed a lot of fuel and high volume underground storage tanks (UST) has been put into the ground without any insulating layer. The leakage a) of USTs - getting rusty during the long period till 90 ties, b) of tubes and pipes transporting the fuel from tank-wagons to UST's in the area of railway terminals, c) caused by irresponsible handling with fuel by soldiers of the soviet army polluted the soil, the vadose zone, the saturated zone and consequently the ground water. The spills can be characterised as long lasting over many years creating the free product layer thick first decimetres to first meters on the groundwater table. Such a situation has been found at the beginning of 90 ties, when the areas has been abandoned in all countries of the former Warsaw Pact. Below, our experience with geophysical prospecting of these sites is discussed.