Ground water contamination in Kuwait resulting from the 1991 Gulf War: A preliminary assessment

A large number of oil wells in Kuwait were damaged and ignited by the retreating Iraqi troops during the 1991 Gulf War. The resulting spillage of huge volumes of crude oil on the surface gave rise to oil lakes and crude oil-impregnated soil. Moreover, products of crude oil combustion had spread over a large tract of the ground surface, causing widespread contamination of soil. Hydrocarbon contamination of ground water by the infiltrating runoff water carrying the contaminants from the surface soil to the water table and/or through direct contact with the crude oil leaking through the damaged casing in the subsurface was feared. This preliminary study was carried out to investigate the extent and nature of this possible contamination of ground water. The results indicate that the shallow fresh water lenses present under the Umm Al-Aish water field and in the southeastern parts of the Raudhatain water field in North Kuwait were affected by hydrocarbon pollution. Standard methods like the determination of the contents of the total petroleum hydrocarbon by the Fourier transform infrared method and 16 polyaromatic hydrocarbons using the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method did not work well, possibly due to the environmental degradation of the crude oil over time. The fluorescence methods and the total organic carbon and total organic matter gave better indications of the intensity and the extent of ground water pollution. The brackish water fields of South and Central Kuwait were, however, free of any indications of hydrocarbon contamination.