The use of electrical resistance tomography (ERT) to monitor new environmental remediation processes is addressed. An overview of the ERT method, including design of surveys and interpretation, is given. Proper design and lay-out of boreholes and electrodes are important for successful results. Data are collected using an automated collection system and interpreted using a nonlinear least squares inversion algorithm. Case histories are given for three remediation technologies: Joule (ohmic) heating, in which clay layers are heated electrically; air sparging, the injection of air below the water table; and electrokinetic treatment, which moves ions by applying an electric current. For Joule heating, a case history is given for an experiment near Savannah River, Georgia, USA. The target for Joule heating was a clay layer of variable thickness. During the early stages of heating, ERT images show increases in conductivity due to the increased temperatures. Later, the conductivities decreased as the system became dehydrated. For air sparging, a case history from Florence, Oregon, USA is described. Air was injected into a sandy aquifer at the site of a former service station. Successive images clearly show the changes in shape of the region of air saturation with time. The monitoring of an electrokinetic laboratory test on core samples is shown. The electrokinetic treatment creates a large change in the core resistivity, decreasing near the anode and increasing near the cathode. Although remediation efforts were successful both at Savannah River and at Florence, in neither case did experiments progress entirely as predicted. At Savannah River, the effects of heating and venting were not uniform and at Florence the radius of air flow was smaller than expected. Most sites are not as well characterized as these two sites. Improving remediation methods requires an understanding of the movements of heat, air, fluids and ions in the sub-surface which ERT can provide. The Florence site provides an excellent example of using information from ERT to improve a remediation system design. At Florence, the injection well used too long a sand pack in the injection zone which decreased the injection depth and thus the zone of influence of the system. Though in retrospect this is obvious, it would not have been noticed without ERT.

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As a groundwater cleanup technology, air sparging has been shown to be an effective alternative to pump and treat when systems are correctly designed and subsurface conditions are favorable (Bass and Brown, 1995).

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Horizontal air sparging (HASP) wells offer several potential advantages compared to linear arrays of vertical air sparging wells. For some of these advantages to be realized, however, HASP wells must be able to deliver air uniformly along the length of the well. HASP wells can fail to deliver air uniformly for either engineering or geological reasons. A 58 m (190‐foot) long HASP well, with a 15 m (50‐foot) long screen interval, was designed, installed, and tested in eolian dune sand. The relative uniformity of the geologic medium allowed specific evaluation of the impact of the well design on air delivery. A variety of monitoring approaches were used during a six‐day pilot test. Pressure drop within the sparge well was found to be negligible through the screen interval of the well. Soil gas pressure and ground water mounding responses were very similar at both ends of the well screen, suggesting relatively uniform air delivery throughout. Electrical resistance tomography results confirmed that airflow in the formation was similar at both ends of the screen interval and that the principal region of airflow was within 1.5 m (5 feet) of the axis of the well. Increased dissolved oxygen was primarily limited to a region within 2.3 m (7.5 feet) of the well and occurred throughout the length of the screen interval. These monitoring results show that HASP wells, properly constructed and installed, can supply air in a generally uniform manner along their length.

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to name a few, in the then-LASI lab for their fiiendsh^ and encouragement. They made n^ life easier ^^liile I stayed in Tucson. I particularty thank Melissa Stubben for her care^ review of this dissertatran. Lee Paprocki m New Mexko Institute of Technotogy was in charge of ERT data collection at the STVZ site. Her responsibility in this project realty impressed me.