Abolghasem Tavassoli, M. H. Mahdian

Groundwater reserves are recharged for the most part by rain that infiltrates through the soil into the underlying layers. These reserves are occasionally augmented by streams and rivers that loose water to the underground strata. Once underground, the water flows at rates ranging from more than 10 meters a day, to as little as 1 meter a year, until it reaches an outlet. This may take the form of a spring, or of a system of slow seepage at the ground surface. It is this seepage that kept rivers flowing during dry periods.

Some 2500 years ago, the use of "Qantas" was developed in Iran. These are long, horizontal galleries, connecting aquifers at the foot of mountains to fields and villages several kilometers away. The use of Qantas spread, as far afield as Egypt, China and Afghanistan, and many such streams are still used today. Once pollutants reach the water, it, may take a very long time to flush out the aquifer completely. Furthermore, pollution can take a very long time to show itself since the water within aquifers moves so slowly.

Northern coastal regions of the Persian Gulf include major riverine systems. These are Karkheh, Karun, Maroon - Jarahi, Zohreh, Shapor-Daleki, Mand, Sahel Jonoobi, Kal, and Minab-Bandar Abbas. The total area covered by these water resources systems is 363381 km².

Annual precipitation is about 185 mm in Kerman Province to about 250 mm in Khuzestan and greater in provinces located in the Zagros mountain ranges. Most of the rain and snow precipitates in winter and early spring. Shallower underground water resources are sued for agricultural irrigation and drinking. The pollutant affects of the 1991 war of Iraq against Kuwait, on water resources, have been obvious since the measured data of acid rain and black rain (soot), showed the contamination of water resources used widely for drinking, irrigation, and industrial purposes. Once polluted, aquifers are difficult, in fact, sometimes impossible to clean up. Samples of water (both surface and underground) from Khozestan region have had contaminating compounds following the burning of Kuwait oil wells and precipitation of black rain. Since contaminated rain incidences accounted for about 30% of the annual regional of underground water depositions (a total of 13353 ´ 10⁶ m³); i. e. 4 ´ 10⁹ m³ of contaminated waters.

According to the WHO report, about 4 billion cubic meter of affective rainfall has been contaminated by different hazardous materials in arid areas at the southern part of Iran. In case of using this source of water, it is necessary to clean up or dilute the water before using it for any purpose.

Much has been said about the environmental impact of the Persian Gulf war. The potential damage of the consequent air pollution on the environment was far from negligible, because according to a IUCN report (1994), twelve oil fields (more than 700 wells) were set on fire or blown up. The fires took nine months to be extinguished. Before firefighters could reach the burning wells, each day (according to World Meteorological Organization figures) the plume dropped 40,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, 3,000 tons of hydrogen sulfide, and 500,000 tons of carbon monoxide, as well as 50,000 tons of greasy soot particles over the Persian Gulf and its coastal areas. Black rain fell in the Himalayas, 2,700 km away and acid rain was recorded as far afield as China. In addition, other pollutants such as, soot, soluble salts, heavy metals and many other hazardous materials were associated with black rain and wind. Considering such an extensive damage to terrestrial and coastal natural resources, especially those of soil and water, a recovery time of 15 to 20 years is anticipated.

According to Vasiliadis and Adib(1997), high concentrations of elemental and organic carbon existed in the plume as far as 500 km from the fire source. Elemental carbon mass was mainly composed of fine particles with less than 0.5 m m in diameter. These are usually transported over 1,000 km in dry conditions. The organic carbons primarily included alkanes and aromatic hydrocarbons. Part of organic carbon is unburned hydrocarbons which have escaped the fire or are very volatile. Heavier hydrocarbons are expected to condense into droplets and deposit on the ground shortly after leaving the fire area. Most of the affected areas are located in the southern and southeastern parts of Iran. Khuzestan, a province with 67,132 km² surface area, is located in the southwestern part of Iran, neighboring Kuwait and the Persian Gulf from the south and southeast. The large river basins there are: Bahmanshir, Karun, Minab, Gamasb and Hendijan.

According to Zare-maivan (1998), many people expressed the change in the quality of their drinking and irrigation water, in a public survey conducted in the affected regions of Iran. Damage caused by the environmental pollution of soluble salts is cost-oriented (e. g. crop losses, metal corrosion and industrial clean up cost). Salt washed from one field recharges into groundwater or discharges into rivers. No simple solution to environmental accumulation of soluble salts is known.

Emissions from the burning wells included airborne particles, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and many other chemicals. The product of these hazardous gases were hydrogen sulfide, carbon monoxide, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals, sulfuric acid and many other toxic materials.

The methodology has been kept as simple as possible. It was used to produce a detailed economic assessment of the water resources cost damage. Unfortunately, little scientific information is available in this regard. It is clear that the exact impact of the Iraq invasion can not be adequately understood from one or two surveys. Also we know that not all resources of water suffered the same overt damage. It was necessary to plan ahead and gather the right baseline data required to undertake an area. There was a need to identify the baseline data requirements including environmental data, climate, soil and other information. Factors contributing to successful practice included: soil survey, soil chemistry, soil physics, water quality and straight forward procedural guidelines towards defined objectives.

Rapid coastal assessments were made in 1991 at 35 sites at which baseline data had been collected by IUCN (1994) in 1986. Using a 0-6 scale, mean values were 3.2 in 1991 compared with 1.8 of the earlier survey.

Some of the data available may be complicated because of some problems associated with procedures of data collection and variation in the level of processes undertaken to determine soil dynamics and affected water resource. The program, therefore, seeks to promote focusing on the sustainable use of natural resources of water.

The methodology, in brief, was developed in order to reclaim polluted resources of water. In addition to short term effects of contamination, there are long term effects of contamination of acidic and black rain on underground water resources. Consistent research is required to determine water quality, and evaluate the concentration of heavy metals, toxic ions, soluble salts, and organic materials. So the following 3 steps were considered:

1. Cost damages of contaminated drinking water (change in water quality)

2. Cost estimation of monitoring (application or long term research)

Based on the satellite pictures taken immediately after the war and during the well fires, it has been concluded that smoke plumes at times had moved eastward and had covered a vast area of southern and western Iranian territories. Naturally, due to the climatic changes and through precipitation, these pollutants are assumed to have ended in the soil and water resources of these territories. Presence of such pollutants in the soil and rain water of these area are reported by a number of researchers (Esmaili Sari, 1997). Studies showed that white smoke plumes were enriched in fine particles or crystalline salts of chlorides, sodium and calcium. These plumes were enriched with several hundred mg/m³ of SO₂ and sulfate (IUCN 1994).

Khuzestan province, the closest Province to Kuwait, and Kerman province in the far southeast of the affected region showed the greatest and the least levels of contamination, respectively (Table 1).

a. Results are mean of 3 replicates. Units are mg/l unless indicated otherwise.

Water soluble and insoluble components in the plume included the common cations (Na⁺, K⁺, Ca⁺⁺, NH⁺₄, H⁺), anions (Cl^-, SO₄⁼, NO^-₃ , CO⁼₃) and different gases (NO, NO₂ , SO₂ , O₃).

A dramatic enhancing effect on deposition rates of gaseous flow provided by the stomata apertures will be a major pollutants deposition towards plant surfaces which can be leached out by perception to surface and underground water resources.

According to Vasiliadis and Adib (1997), the values of SO₂, and NO_X at 200k m down wind from Kuwait oil fire sources is reported as 44.5 PPbV and 5 PPbV respectively. Due to high rate of include oxidation of SO₂ and NO_X, it is reasonable to assume 100% conversion of them to strong acids (H₂SO₄ and HNO₃). Then the amount of PH at 200 km from oil fire will be :

pH = log[H⁺] = 3.5 (Vasilidas and Adib 1998).

Herring and Hobbes (1994) and Daum et. al., (1993) have reported the concentrations of several trace gases in the plume air samples collected during the spring and summer of 1991. Their findings are summarized in Table 2.

* Distance downwind from the source,

+ Background < 1

++ NBG = near background

Concentration of hydrocarbons in water and soil samples of Khuzestan province is shown in Table 3.

Sample No.	Location	Water	Soil
1	Sugar cane farm	1.14	8.05
2	Shushtar	16.04	52.79
3	Palm plantation(Abadan)	4.67	81.32
4	Ahwaz, south	12.08	42.03
5	Forest, Behbahan	21.70	42.03
6	Farm, Village	120	156.4
7	Salt marsh, Shadegan	67	10
8	Karun River	88	37.39
9	Dezful	26.69	90.25
10	Ramhormoz	1	11.9

Regional (and to some degree global) distribution of thousands of tons of heavy metals consequent of burning oil wells of Kuwait is expected and the amounts estimated for the entire period of burning are shown in Table 4 by Sadiq, et. al., (1992).

Groundwater resources recharged from Zagros Mountains are vital for drinking and agricultural purposes. High levels of acidic and polluted depositions have emerged in the Zagros Mountains region due to SO₂ and other pollutants.

Major pollutant materials such as SO₂ , NO_x , soot particles, organic matters, and elemental carbon were interrupted by Zagros mountains and later on washed out through basins and watersheds by precipitation (rain & snow). Finally they affected surface and underground water resources.

Water resources are a vital part of the life support system and a priceless natural resources. So it is our responsibility to introduce a program focusing on practical methods for conserving water resources. Such a program will deal with global and local policy issues as well as with the practical aspects of the ground problems of soils management.

Sustainable development is an important task related to this topic. However, it is a rather highly dynamic goal with changing variables in regards to technological, demographic and environmental aspects.

Conservation and management are most urgently needed to cure natural resources of soil and water. There is also a realization that renewable resources contribute significantly to national economies and even geopolitical stability. Indeed, their effective assessment and management is fundamental to sustainable development of our country.

To overcome the above-described problems, new techniques need to be developed. There is usually no single way to achieve safe use of pollutant natural resource such as soil and water. Several technology processes have been implied as being applicable for water reclamation.

Cost estimation of monitoring is another aspect which will be considered in the reclamation of soil and water resources in the affected areas. Such monitoring is so expensive, however, we have to complete our studies and take soil and water samples and analyze them for organic materials (PAHs and POC); inorganic materials, heavy metals, anions, cations, soluble salts, alkalinity, total hardness, SAR, ion toxicity, PH, BODs, COD, TOC, and suspended solids.

1. Daum, P.H., A.Al-Sunaid, K.M. Busness, J.M. Hales, and M.Mazurek, 1993. Studies of the Kuwait oil fire plume during midsummer 1991, J. Geophys. Res., 98, D9, 16809-16827.
2. Esmaili Sari, A. 1997. Effect of firing and Explosion of Kuwait’s oil wells on Natural Resources of Iran.
3. Herring, J.A., and P.V.Hobbs, 1994. Radiatively Driven Dynamics of the Plume form 1991 Kuwait oil fires, J. Geophys. Res., 99,D9, 18809-18826.
4. IUCN, 1994. Coastal management in the Arabian Peninsula, Briefing paper, Marine and Coastal Area Program, the World Conservation Union, Switzerland.
5. Sadiq, M. K., K. M. Al Thagafi and A. A. Mian, 1992. preliminary Evaluation of Metal Contamination of Soils from the Persian Gulf war activities. Bull. Environ, Contan, Toxicol. 49:633-639.
6. Vasiliadis, H.V. and Adib, 1998, Environmental impacts from the 1991 Kuwait oil fires. Center for Water Resources and Environmental Research, The city college, The city university of New York, NY 10031.
7. Vasilidas, H. V. and Food Adib, 1997, Smoke Plumes from the Kuwait Oil Fires, Center. For Water Resources and Environmental Research, City University of New York, Report No. TR97-CWRER, 46PP.