Ranking of septic tank and drainfield sites using travel time to the groundwater table
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States). Environmental Risk Assessment and Risk Management Dept.
The Environmental Restoration Program at Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico (SNL/NM) is tasked with performing assessments and cleanup of waste sites that belong to SNL. SNL`s waste sites are divided into several activities. Septic Tanks and Drainfields (STD) is an activity that includes 23 different sites at SNL/NM. All these sites may have released hazardous wastes into the soil from drains or sewers of buildings. The STD sites must be assessed and, if necessary, remediated according to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Corrective Action process. A modeling study has been completed to help prioritize the sites for future field investigation based on the risk that each site may pose to human health and the environment. Two of the influences on the risk to human health and environment are addressed in this study--the fluid disposal volume and groundwater depth. These two parameters, as well as several others, were used as input into a computer model to calculate groundwater travel time to the water table. The computer model was based on Darcy`s Law and a simple mass balance. To account for uncertainty in the input parameters, a Monte Carlo approach was used to determine the travel times; 1,000 realizations were completed to determine the travel time for each site. The range assigned to each of the input parameters was sampled according to an assigned statistical distribution using the Latin Hypercube Method to arrive at input for the calculations. The groundwater travel times resulting from these calculations were used to rank the sites for future field investigation.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000
- OSTI ID:
- 10187581
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-94-0981; ON: DE95001111; BR: GB0103012; TRN: 94:021072
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Sep 1994
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES
SANITARY LANDFILLS
GROUND WATER
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
REMEDIAL ACTION
SOILS
DECONTAMINATION
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
FLUID FLOW
COMPILED DATA
PLANNING
WATER TABLES
054000
540220
HEALTH AND SAFETY
CHEMICALS MONITORING AND TRANSPORT