Groundwater Infiltration Path of Road Deicing Agent and its Quantification

Abstract:

A deicing agent has been sprinkled on an expressway to prevent it from freezing in the hilly and mountainous area along the expressway having been used for more than 30 years. We investigated the infiltration, the river runoff, and the scattering of the de-icing agent quantitatively, observed the variation of water quality in river, and discussed the infiltration route and balance of the deicing agent in order to clarify the influence of the de-icing agent on the groundwater salinization. As a result, it turned out that 65% of the de-icing agent sprinkled on the road surface flowed into the waterway, the 25% infiltrated into underground through the crack of a road surface, and the remaining 10% dispersed out of an expressway. Next, for the rate of the de-icing agent outflowing to the river during a frozen snow term, it was estimated that the 39% of the sprinkled de-icing agent outflowed with surface water, and the 17% did with groundwater. Moreover, it was shown clearly that the 44% was probably stored in underground from the balance between the sprinkled de-icing agent and the outflowing one.

In addition, the Cl^- concentration of groundwater by the infiltrated deicing agent was simulated to clarify its extent and to predict its change in future when stopped sprinkling the deicing agent.