Determining Source Attenuation History to Support Closure by Natural Attenuation

Abstract

An innovative approach for reconstructing the contaminant concentration vs. time trend i.e., the source history for a site using high-resolution soil data from low permeability (low-k) zones was tested during this project. Essentially, soil cores in these zones serve a similar role as tree rings, in that the cores store information about historic environmental conditions. For the case of contaminants that have migrated into low permeability zones via diffusion and slow advection, the concentration vs. depth profile can be used to determine if attenuation of the contaminant source in the overlying transmissive zones has occurred. This can be an important line of evidence for evaluating the viability of monitored natural attenuation for evaluating the viability of monitored natural attenuation for site management. The project demonstrated high-resolution sampling methods.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2013
Accession Number
ADA602381

Entities

People

  • Beth L. Parker
  • Charles J. Newell
  • David T Adamson
  • Steven Chapman
  • Tom Sale

Organizations

  • GSI Environmental (United States)

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • C4I
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Alkenes
  • Chemical Reactions
  • Chemical Synthesis
  • Chemistry
  • Databases
  • Ecology
  • Environmental Protection
  • Groundwater
  • Hydrocarbon Fuels
  • Information Science
  • Materials Science
  • Measurement
  • Organic Chemistry
  • Spreadsheet Software
  • Surveys
  • Two Dimensional

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Groundwater Contamination Remediation.
  • Systems Analysis and Design