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CONTAMINATED SEDIMENT TRANSPORT AND FATE MODELING
Impact/Purpose:
The four research objectives in this task are:
1. Evaluation of existing contaminated sediment mass fate and transport models and bioaccumulation models. Existing, public domain contaminated sediment transport and bioaccumulation models will be evaluated, and the highest ranked models will be tested in the following types of surface water bodies: river, reservoir, estuary.
2. Develop new modules for selected fate and transport model(s) for certain types of water bodies to address the identified sediment-related needs of OERR and the Regions. Where weaknesses are identified during the evaluation described above, modules would be enhanced or created for the top ranked contaminated sediment fate and transport models.
3. Report on the evaluation of long-term (i.e., 1 - 10 years) accuracy of the upgraded contaminated sediment fate and transport models by modeling the transport and fate of sediments and contaminants at a demonstration site. This modeling will be performed for Lake Hartwell, which is a 56,000 acre reservoir at the headwaters of the Savannah River. The Sangamo Weston Superfund site is located on Twelve Mile Creek, a tributary on the Seneca River branch of Hartwell. Application of the refined modeling framework would be an excellent test of the upgraded models's abilities to simulate the long-term transport of contaminated sediments in a reservoir.
4. Produce a consensus framework for modeling remedial alternatives in large waterbodies and estuaries. Building from successes with existing models, supplemented with the newly developed modules, a consensus framework for fate/transport/bioaccumulation modeling at Superfund sites would be developed. The framework would include protocols for applying the component models.
Description:
Many Superfund sites include rivers, reservoirs, and other surface bodies of water (and the adjacent floodplains) that are highly contaminated with PCBs, metals, and other toxic chemicals. Examples of contaminated waters are the Hudson, Fox, Housatonic and Clark Fork Rivers, Lake Hartwell (US Army Corps of Engineers [US ACOE] reservoir at the headwaters of the Savannah River), and New Bedford Harbor. These contaminants are often bioaccumulated in fish, and as such pose potential health risks to humans who consume the fish. Remediation of these sites is extremely expensive. Assessment and prediction of the transport and fate of contaminated sediments in these waters is an essential component of risk assessment and remedial decision making at Superfund sites. Modeling the transport and fate of contaminated sediments is often one of the requisite components of predicting bioaccumulation. The goal of this task is to develop a consensus framework for fate/transport/bioaccumulation modeling at Superfund sites. The framework will include modeling protocols for applying the component contaminated sediment transport and bioaccumulation models.