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ANALYTICAL TOOLS FOR GROUNDWATER POLLUTION ASSESSMENT
Citation:
Hantush*, M M., M. R. Islan, AND M. A. Marino. ANALYTICAL TOOLS FOR GROUNDWATER POLLUTION ASSESSMENT. In Proceedings, After the Rain Has Fallen 1998 IWRE Ground Water Management Symposium, Memphis, TN, August 03 - 07, 1998. American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Reston, VA, 147-152, (1998).
Impact/Purpose:
information
Description:
This paper deals with the development of analytical screening-exposure models (indices) and their potential application to regulate the use of hazardous chemicals and the design of groundwater buffer strips. The indices describe the leaching of solutes below the root zone (mass fraction), emissions to the water table, and mass fraction of the contaminant intercepted by a well or a surface water body. The root zone is modeled separately from the intermediate-vadose zone, and the processes of crop uptake and volatilization from soil surface are incorporated in the root zone model. Other processes considered include (bio)chemical decay, adsorption, and percolation in the soil, and convective-dispersive and reactive transport in the aquifer. The methodology is applied to a list of pesticides, and their ranking scheme is compared to those based on some existing screening models. The potential use of the proposed indices for the design of groundwater/surface water buffer strips is also illustrated.