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Geophysics applications to LUST sites: case studies and online tools
Citation:
Werkema, Dale. Geophysics applications to LUST sites: case studies and online tools. 27th National Tanks Conference & Exposition, Pittsburg, PA, September 13 - 15, 2022.
Impact/Purpose:
This presentation introduces the new EPA environmental geophysics web presence to environmental professionals during the EPA's National Tanks Conference. Introducing this web site to these professionals will impact the awareness of EPA geophysical resources, promote their use, garner information for web site improvements, and lead to improved and efficient environmental clean up and protection of human health and the environment by applying state of the science geophysics to environmental applications. The web site provides a vehicle to connect practitioners and the application of geophysics to the basic science, tools, and research development.
Description:
Geophysical methods have shown great success contributing to finding underground objects, mapping contaminant plumes, monitoring remediation, developing high-resolution conceptual site models, and understanding site hydrogeologic dynamics such as groundwater – surface water interactions. The application of state of the science geophysical methods requires an understanding of the physics, the geology, the hydrogeology, contaminant chemistry and biogeochemistry, and the resultant interaction of these disciplines. This can be a lot to ask for remedial project managers, regulators, or stakeholders. To bridge the gap between the basic science of geophysics and its application to environmental problems, the EPA Environmental Geophysics web presence has been developed. This web site contains geophysical resources including an online textbook for geophysical methods relevant to environmental applications, a searchable list of current references, and geophysical terminology. Past and current EPA geophysical research is shown as well as EPA funded publications. A large selection of geophysical tools including decision support tools, miscellaneous geophysical utilities, and forward and inverse models are also available. This presentation will highlight these free resources as a virtual environmental geophysics library and assist in the guiding, selecting, and evaluating the applicability of geophysical methods to environmental objectives. The demonstration will provide a description of these resources and include examples of the decision support tools, utilities, and models freely accessible to the public. The EPA environmental geophysics web presence allows practitioners, site investigators, stakeholders, and others online content readily accessible to help serve their objectives for environmental cleanup.