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APPLICATION OF A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR A CONTAINMENT SYSTEM LEAK DETECTION
Citation:
Ross*, R R., M S. Beljin*, AND B. E. Vierx. APPLICATION OF A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM FOR A CONTAINMENT SYSTEM LEAK DETECTION. U.S. EPA GIS Conference, Cincinnati, Ohio, 9/22-24/99. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/A-01/029 (NTIS PB2001-104741), 1999.
Description:
The use of physical and hydraulic containment systems for the isolation of contaminated ground water associated with hazardous waste sites has increased during the last decade. Existing methodologies for monitoring and evaluating leakage from hazardous waste containment systems rely primarily on limited hydraulic head data. The number of hydraulic head monitoring points available at most sites employing physical containment systems may be insufficient to identify significant leakage. A general approach for evaluating the performance of containment systems based on estimations of apparent leakage rates is used to introduce a methodology for determining the number of monitoring points necessary to identify the hydraulic signature of leakage from a containment system. The probabilistic method is based on the principles of geometric probability. A raster-based GIS (IDRISI) was used to determine the critical dimensions of the hydraulic signature of leakage from a containment system, as simulated under a variety of hydrogeologic conditions using a three-dimensional ground-water flow model. MODRISI, a set of computer programs, was used to integrate ground-water flow modeling results into the hydraulic signature assessment method.