Geologic heterogeneity and groundwater contamination: Guidelines for determination of significance to investigation and remediation

Thesis/Dissertation · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:5004130

Kopania, A A

Groundwater contaminant plumes typically exist in a complex geological environment. The key issue then becomes how best to achieve a sufficient understanding of the spatial variability of the geology, given limited resources, so that an adequate investigation can be conducted and an adequate remedy proposed. Parameters which influence groundwater and contaminant migration, such as hydraulic conductivity and porosity, often have a high degree of spatial variability within a hydrogeologic system. A common approach to deal with the spatial variability of aquifers has been to use statistical methods which assume that heterogeneities are distributed randomly and that anisotropies are stationary in space. However, an understanding of geological depositional processes indicates that these assumptions are often not valid at the scale of typical groundwater plumes. Analyses of tracer-test data collected in 1989 from the Borden aquifer in Ontario, Canada demonstrate the level of control that geologic variability plays in contaminant migration. Even subtle changes in the aquifer material have a noticeable affect on the rate of chemical movement through specific intervals of the aquifer. Comparison of previously conducted stochastic analyses with the tracer-test data indicate that statistical techniques provide limited insight into the actual behavior of contaminants in the aquifer at the scale of observation, compared to a detailed geologic description. Data from three significant groundwater plumes in California are also presented. These data demonstrate the degree of influence that geologic features and the overall depositional environment have on groundwater flow and contaminant transport.

• Research Organization: California Univ., Los Angeles, CA (United States)
• OSTI ID: 5004130
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540220* -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
CALIFORNIA
CONTAMINATION
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
GEOLOGY
GROUND WATER
HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MASS TRANSFER
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NORTH AMERICA
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PLUMES
POLLUTION
POROSITY
RECOMMENDATIONS
REMEDIAL ACTION
USA
WATER
WATER POLLUTION