3-D Electrical Resistivity Tomography to Monitor the Slurry Ponds

This paper presents work on slurry storage structures that was carried out with 3D electrical tomography with the aim in mind of enabling the spatial definition of the migratory paths in the subsoil taken by the pollutant after it leaves the ponds. The work further intended to find out the depth reached by this livestock effluent by means of geoelectrical methods, thus enabling an evaluation of the risk that the surface aquifers are subject to on which these storage infrastructures are to be found. In order to corroborate the reliability of the results, these were checked against the 2D electrical tomography geoelectrical results obtained from the same slurry ponds, as well as against the physical-chemical analyses carried out on drill hole samples and the slurry itself. The results obtained from the 3D electrical tomography have shown its fitness to study soil pollution by slurry ponds due to the significant electrical resistance contrast that prevails between the slurry, an effluent that is rich is salts, and the materials that go to make up the subsoil.