Abstract |
Groundwater use in the USA has more than doubled between 1950 and 1975, and more than 40% of the USA population utilizes groundwater as a drinking water source. These figures, coupled with the enormous cost of groundwater remediation, underscore the importance of understanding chemical transport through soil and in groundwater. The document discusses three aspects of organic chemical transport. How cationic surfactants effectively increase the organic carbon content, and thus the sorption capacity, of geologic material is discussed. Conversely, if a mobile hydrophobic phase is present, such as colloidal sized organic particles dispersed in the aqueous phase, chemical transport may be greatly facilitated through sorption on the mobile organic phase. Finally, how chemical transport in the presence of residual hydrocarbons results from the entrapment of hydrocarbonaceous fluids, such as petroleum derived fuels and solvents, in the pore space of geologic material. |