A lysimeter station for contaminated soil studies

A lysimeter station has been set up by AMRA for the study of the reactive transport of contaminants in soil at the field-scale. It consists of eight lysimeters that can operate individually and simultaneously. Each lysimeter is a steel cylinder (diameter 1.14m, height 2m) filled with an undisturbed soil monolith, whose upper surface is directly exposed to the external environmental agents. A set of sensors enables the remote monitoring of overall lysimeter weight as well as of temperature, water potential and water content at several soil depths along the soil monolith. Water and gas samples can be obtained for chemical and biological analysis. A programmable hydraulic system is provided to simulate the fluctuations in water-table level. A gas-sparging system is already installed for bioventing applications.