Most wells developed in Jeju island before the enactment of the Groundwater Management Ordinance in 2002 are vulnerable to aquifer contamination due to inflow of upper groundwater having the high concentration of nitrate nitrogen, likely due to incomplete grouting in upper section of the wells. Although these wells require entire reinstallation, it is often necessary to rehabilitate the existing wells due to various constraints. Therefore, to identified the inflow section of contaminants, the thermal level sensor (TLS) technique was firstly applied for three wells, which enables to monitor temperature variations in every 50 cm depth. Then, the grouting material was injected to the upper section to prevent the inflow of upper contaminated groundwater into the entire aquifer. By applying TLS technique, it was found that the temperature deviations in the upper groundwater inflow section decreased sharply. Moreover, both the change in the concentration of nitrate nitrogen in the rainy/dry seasons and the average concentrations were found to decrease rapidly after grouting material injection. Consequently, the application of TLS proposed in the study turned out to be appropriate to prevent aquifer contamination.

Keywords: Aquifer contamination, Nitrate nitrogen, Thermal level sensor (TLS), Grouting material injection, Jeju Island