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Title: Nitrate vulnerability projections from Bayesian inference of multiple groundwater age tracers

Abstract

Nitrate is a major source of contamination of groundwater in the United States and around the world. We tested the applicability of multiple groundwater age tracers (3H, 3He, 4He, 14C, 13C, and 85Kr) in projecting future trends of nitrate concentration in 9 long-screened, public drinking water wells in Turlock, California, where nitrate concentrations are increasing toward the regulatory limit. Very low 85Kr concentrations and apparent 3H/3He ages point to a relatively old modern fraction (40–50 years), diluted with pre-modern groundwater, corroborated by the onset and slope of increasing nitrate concentrations. An inverse Gaussian–Dirac model was chosen to represent the age distribution of the sampled groundwater at each well. Model parameters were estimated using a Bayesian inference, resulting in the posterior probability distribution – including the associated uncertainty – of the parameters and projected nitrate concentrations. Three scenarios were considered, including combined historic nitrate and age tracer data, the sole use of nitrate and the sole use of age tracer data. Each scenario was evaluated based on the ability of the model to reproduce the data and the level of reliability of the nitrate projections. The tracer-only scenario closely reproduced tracer concentrations, but not observed trends in the nitrate concentration. Bothmore » cases that included nitrate data resulted in good agreement with historical nitrate trends. Use of combined tracers and nitrate data resulted in a narrower range of projections of future nitrate levels. However, use of combined tracer and nitrate resulted in a larger discrepancy between modeled and measured tracers for some of the tracers. In conclusion, despite nitrate trend slopes between 0.56 and 1.73 mg/L/year in 7 of the 9 wells, the probability that concentrations will increase to levels above the MCL by 2040 are over 95% for only two of the wells, and below 15% in the other wells, due to a leveling off of reconstructed historical nitrate loadings to groundwater since about 1990.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [5]; ORCiD logo [1];  [3]
  1. The Catholic Univ. of America, Washington, D.C. (United States)
  2. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); California State Univ., Hayward, CA (United States)
  3. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  4. Univ. of Bern, Bern (Switzerland)
  5. California State Univ., Hayward, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE; USGS
OSTI Identifier:
1367981
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1396552
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-677921
Journal ID: ISSN 0022-1694
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-07NA27344
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Journal of Hydrology
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 543; Journal Issue: PA; Journal ID: ISSN 0022-1694
Publisher:
Elsevier
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; 58 GEOSCIENCES; Nitrate vulnerability; Age tracers; Bayesian inference; Uncertainty analysis; Lumped parameter models; Residence time distribution

Citation Formats

Alikhani, Jamal, Deinhart, Amanda L., Visser, Ate, Bibby, Richard K., Purtschert, Roland, Moran, Jean E., Massoudieh, Arash, and Esser, Bradley K. Nitrate vulnerability projections from Bayesian inference of multiple groundwater age tracers. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.04.028.
Alikhani, Jamal, Deinhart, Amanda L., Visser, Ate, Bibby, Richard K., Purtschert, Roland, Moran, Jean E., Massoudieh, Arash, & Esser, Bradley K. Nitrate vulnerability projections from Bayesian inference of multiple groundwater age tracers. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.04.028
Alikhani, Jamal, Deinhart, Amanda L., Visser, Ate, Bibby, Richard K., Purtschert, Roland, Moran, Jean E., Massoudieh, Arash, and Esser, Bradley K. Wed . "Nitrate vulnerability projections from Bayesian inference of multiple groundwater age tracers". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.04.028. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1367981.
@article{osti_1367981,
title = {Nitrate vulnerability projections from Bayesian inference of multiple groundwater age tracers},
author = {Alikhani, Jamal and Deinhart, Amanda L. and Visser, Ate and Bibby, Richard K. and Purtschert, Roland and Moran, Jean E. and Massoudieh, Arash and Esser, Bradley K.},
abstractNote = {Nitrate is a major source of contamination of groundwater in the United States and around the world. We tested the applicability of multiple groundwater age tracers (3H, 3He, 4He, 14C, 13C, and 85Kr) in projecting future trends of nitrate concentration in 9 long-screened, public drinking water wells in Turlock, California, where nitrate concentrations are increasing toward the regulatory limit. Very low 85Kr concentrations and apparent 3H/3He ages point to a relatively old modern fraction (40–50 years), diluted with pre-modern groundwater, corroborated by the onset and slope of increasing nitrate concentrations. An inverse Gaussian–Dirac model was chosen to represent the age distribution of the sampled groundwater at each well. Model parameters were estimated using a Bayesian inference, resulting in the posterior probability distribution – including the associated uncertainty – of the parameters and projected nitrate concentrations. Three scenarios were considered, including combined historic nitrate and age tracer data, the sole use of nitrate and the sole use of age tracer data. Each scenario was evaluated based on the ability of the model to reproduce the data and the level of reliability of the nitrate projections. The tracer-only scenario closely reproduced tracer concentrations, but not observed trends in the nitrate concentration. Both cases that included nitrate data resulted in good agreement with historical nitrate trends. Use of combined tracers and nitrate data resulted in a narrower range of projections of future nitrate levels. However, use of combined tracer and nitrate resulted in a larger discrepancy between modeled and measured tracers for some of the tracers. In conclusion, despite nitrate trend slopes between 0.56 and 1.73 mg/L/year in 7 of the 9 wells, the probability that concentrations will increase to levels above the MCL by 2040 are over 95% for only two of the wells, and below 15% in the other wells, due to a leveling off of reconstructed historical nitrate loadings to groundwater since about 1990.},
doi = {10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.04.028},
journal = {Journal of Hydrology},
number = PA,
volume = 543,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Apr 20 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Wed Apr 20 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}

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Cited by: 21 works
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