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FATE AND TRANSPORT OF MTBE AND OTHER GASOLINE COMPONENTS
Citation:
Wilson*, J T. FATE AND TRANSPORT OF MTBE AND OTHER GASOLINE COMPONENTS. Chapter 3, MTBE Remediation Handbook. Amherst Scientific Publishers, Amherst, MA, , 19-61, (2003).
Description:
This book chapter reviews the processes and interactions that control the transport and fate of MTBE and TBA in the subsurface. It describes the transport and fate of vapors of MTBE in the unsaturated zone, the partitioning of MTBE from gasoline spills directly into water, and the separation of MTBE from BTEX that is often seen as ground water moves along a flow path. It discusses the important mechanisms of natural attenuation of MTBE including the role of dispersion and dilution, the role of biodegradation of MTBE, the production of TBA from the biodegradation of MTBE and TBA biodegradation. It describes errors in site characterization that provide a false impression of natural attenuation, and describes how plumes can dive below the screens of monitoring wells. It discusses the two possible life cycles of MTBE plumes, and provides an illustration of a plume that came to a steady state and is slowly receding back to the LNAPL source area, and a plume that failed to come to a steady state and the hot spot continued to move down gradient toward a receptor.Finally, the review identifies the factors that lead to long MTBE plumes.