DIVERSE APPLICATIONS OF GIS; MAPPING HISTORIC FILL AREAS ON A REFINERY UTILIZING 1944 HISTORIC MAPS

At a refinery in New Jersey, extensive work has been performed to characterize contamination at the site. Because of its long history of operation, it is important to distinguish historic contamination from contamination that may be associated with recent operations. In addition, to understand the geologic and hydrogeologic processes occurring at the site, it is critical to characterize the soil type and subsurface conditions.

This poster will present a visual application of ArcGIS. A 1944 historic soil classification report and associated hand drawn maps were utililized to define the extent of historic fill in a major refinery where dredge materials were placed at the site to raise topographic elevations. Maps from the 1944 report were imported into ArcGIS and georeferenced onto the site basemap to identify areas in which scouring occurred and dredge spoils were deposited. Based on the results of this exercise, our understanding of the geology and hydrogeology has been enhanced and has aided in developing a more refined site conceptual model.

This study shows one of the many versatile applications of GIS that provides viewers/clients with a better perspective of the site's history and supports a better understating of the hydrogeologic processes occurring at the site.