Predicting behavior of contaminants in aquifers using apparent relative retardation of surrogates
- Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)
Two-well recirculating tracer tests can be used not only to determine porosity and dispersivity of aquifers, but also to compare the in situ behavior of different solutes in aquifers, thus avoiding problems of transferring laboratory-scale results to the field scale. At special field sites for the testing and calibration of tracers under carefully controlled conditions, the behavior of certain hazardous target contaminants can be compared to that of harmless surrogate tracers, which in turn, can be injected into other aquifers with minimal environmental risk and analyzed to determine how the hazardous substances would behave during normal groundwater transit and during remediation. The area under the recirculating-test breakthrough curve of each solute is computed and divided by the product of concentration and duration of its original spike to obtain the cumulative relative mass time (CRMT) of each substance for any time span after sampling begins. The apparent relative retardation (ARR{sub d}) factor is obtained as: ARR{sub d} = [CRMT(target)]/[CRMT(surrogate)]. Results of field trials in a fissured carbonate aquifer, using a tritium target and a bromide surrogate, showed how ARR{sub d} varied mostly with pore size. This technique can be used with other binary or higher-order combinations of substances. 3 refs., 6 figs.
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- OSTI ID:
- 90796
- Journal Information:
- Environmental Geology and Water Sciences, Journal Name: Environmental Geology and Water Sciences Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 22; ISSN EGWSEI; ISSN 0177-5146
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Absolute hydraulic conductivity estimates from aquifer pumping and tracer tests in a stratified aquifer
Single well tracer tests in aquifer characterization