Quantitative Assessment of Environmental Contamination due to NaTech Accidents

Natech accidents are a serious challenge in the technological industry, since it is hard to predict them, and it is difficult to deal with them. Environmental contamination due to Natech accidents is a severe potential issue. It is important for it to be considered as a possible consequence of such accident scenarios and to assess it, in order to prevent or mitigate it. In the present study, a quantitative assessment of Natech events has been carried out, applied to a case study regarding the potential impact of earthquakes. Atmospheric storage tanks containing gasoline and crude oil were considered to fail and to release their content to the environment, leading to the contamination of soil and groundwater. The extent of the contamination was evaluated throughout a software (HSSM), and environmental risk indexes were calculated. It was figured out that gasoline, due to its properties, is able to easily reach the deep soil and the groundwater, potentially causing severe contamination, the treatment of which would be very expensive. Crude oil, being more viscous, is not able to reach the groundwater. However, it results in a large contamination of the surface, leading to a high cost of remediation actions. The results confirm the relevance of damage to environment potentially caused by Natech scenarios.