About 90% of groundwater wells in Jeju Island are reported to be under the threat of contamination by infiltration of the surface pollutants. Most of those wells have improperly grouted annulus which is an empty space between the well and the inner casing. As a remedy to this problem, some of the wells were re-grouted by filling the annulus with cement without lifting an inner casing. In order to evaluate whether this method is appropriate for the geological structure of Jeju Island, two wells (W1 and W2) were selected and this method was applied. The water holding capacity did not decrease while the nitrate levels decreased from 16.8 and 20.2 to 6.8 and 13.8 mg/L in W1 and W2, respectively. The higher nitrate level in W2 is deemed to be influenced by the livestock farms located in the upper area of the well. In addition, transmissivity of the vedose zone was higher in W2 than W1, potentially facilitating the transport of nitrate to the groundwater. The overall result of this study suggests re-grouting of wells for the purpose of protecting water quality of goundwater should take into account geological structure of vadose zone as well as appropriate source control of the contaminants.

Keywords: Groundwater well regrouting, Prevention of groundwater pollution, Improving groundwater quality