Studies of Contaminant Diffusion in an Aquitard and Groundwater Remediation by Reactive Metals at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware

Abstract

This project focused on analysis of in-situ concentrations of chlorinated hydrocarbons in an aquitard underlying the site of a prior field-scale investigation of pump-and-treat remediation in sheet-pile "test cells" at Dover AFB, DE. Another aspect was the conduct of exploratory long-term column investigations of zero-valent metal barrier technologies, as applied to contaminated groundwater taken from the aquifer surrounding the cells. During the post-pumping period, unique conditions of zero flow were maintained within the sheet-pile enclosures. Extensive soil coring was conducted at times corresponding to roughly seven and sixteen months after the termination of the prior project. New modeling approaches were developed both to: (1) apply concentration profile information toward more accurate estimation of plume history (inverse modeling for forensic interpretation); and (2) obtain predictions of the post-pumping contaminant movement (multi-layer diffusion modeling). Results were used to: (1) test the assumption that diffusion alone affected contaminant fate, and (2) conduct additional forensic interpretations and field-scale simulations. The column investigations provided long-term verification of halogenated alkene removal under essentially in situ groundwater conditions, including continuous removal of cis-1,2-dichloroethene. Results also confirmed that dichloromethane is not removed and showed apparent breakthrough of two other chemicals, tentatively identified as dichloroethanes.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 23, 1998
Accession Number
ADA351504

Entities

People

  • Douglas M. Mackey
  • Liu Chongxuan
  • Ryan D. Wilson
  • William P. Ball

Organizations

  • Johns Hopkins University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Facilities
  • Alkanes
  • Alkenes
  • Chemical Synthesis
  • Chemistry
  • Earth Sciences
  • Ecology
  • Environmental Pollutants
  • Geography
  • Groundwater
  • Mass Transfer
  • Measurement
  • Military Research
  • Organic Chemistry
  • United States
  • Water Resources

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Groundwater Contamination Remediation.