Skip to main content
OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

Simulation of flow and mercury transport in Upper East Fork Poplar Creek, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Journal Article · · Remediation
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/rem.21314· OSTI ID:1086725
 [1]; ; ;
  1. Applied Research Center, Florida International University, Miami, FL
+ Show Author Affiliations
As a result of nuclear processing activities started back in the 1950s, the environment in the vicinity of the Y-12 National Security Complex (Y-12 NSC) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and surrounding watersheds has been contaminated by nearly 1,000 tons of elementary mercury. To comply with the state and federal surface water quality standards, a significant reduction in mercury concentration to parts-per-trillion levels has been proposed. In order to analyze the mercury cycle in the environment and provide forecasting capabilities for the flow and transport of mercury within the Upper East Fork Poplar Creek (UEFPC) watershed, an integrated surface and subsurface flow and transport model has been developed using the hydrodynamic and transport numerical package, MIKE, developed by the Danish Hydraulic Institute. The model has been constructed and calibrated using an extensive collection of historical records (i.e., hydrological data, and mercury concentration measurements in groundwater, soil, and sediment) obtained from the Oak Ridge Environmental Information System database. Daily fluctuations in stream flow, as a result of scattered rainfall, flooding, and flow augmentation, resuspend the contaminated streambed sediments and/or erode the polluted streambank soil and provide a secondary source of mercury to the creek. In order to investigate the significance of sediment-mercury interactions on the fate and transport of mercury within the UEFPC study domain, simulations were performed for two different cases (i.e., with and without consideration of sediment-mercury interactions). Computed total suspended solids and mercury concentrations at the integration point of the creek are compared with the corresponding historical records in both cases. As confirmed by the numerical simulations, a substantial portion of the mercury detected in the river is likely in the form of sediment particle–bound mercury (i.e., mercury particulates).
Research Organization:
Florida International Univ. (FIU), Miami, FL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM)
DOE Contract Number:
EM0000598
OSTI ID:
1086725
Report Number(s):
DOE/EM0000598/FIU-ARC-2012-800000438-12c-220
Journal Information:
Remediation, Journal Name: Remediation Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 22; ISSN 1051-5658
Publisher:
Wiley
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (4)

Response of Mercury Contamination in Fish to Decreased Aqueous Concentrations and Loading of Inorganic Mercury in a Small Stream journal August 2000
Sources of Mercury to East Fork Poplar Creek Downstream from the Y-12 National Security Complex: Inventories and Export Rates report February 2010
Development of a mercury speciation, fate, and biotic uptake (BIOTRANSPEC) model: Application to Lahontan Reservoir (Nevada, USA) journal November 2007
Controlling Mercury Release from Source Zones to Surface Water: Initial Results of Pilot Tests at the Y-12 National Security Complex report January 2009

Similar Records

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
42 ENGINEERING
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ARC
ECO Lab
EFPC
East Fork Poplar Creek
FIU
FIU-ARC
MIKE 11
MIKE SHE
OREIS
Oak Ridge
TSS
UEFPC
flow
hydrology
mercury
model
remediation
sediment
simulation
soil
stream
subsurface
total suspended solids
transport
water
watershed