Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

An introduction to contaminant hydrogeology and mass transport processes in groundwater regimes. Topics include: natural groundwater quality: sources of contamination, for example, from mine waste, agriculture, saltwater intrusion, and industrial activities; and the processes and principles governing mass transport, including advection, dispersion and diffusion. The course also explores methodologies for site investigation as well as various remediation methods. Students with credit for EASC 410 may not take this course for further credit.

COURSE DETAILS:

General:
Groundwater contamination can be a significant environmental problem leading to degradation of the quality of fresh water both in the subsurface and where groundwater discharges to surface water bodies. This course introduces the basic principles of contaminant hydrogeology (inorganic and organic contaminants, chemical processes, mass transport processes) and contaminant transport modeling. Analytical solutions for mass transport and numerical solutions (e.g., MT3D) are covered. The course culminates in the development of a numerical transport model and appropriate model documentation to investigate the transport of a contaminant at a well-known contaminated site. The course also explores methodologies for site investigation as well as various remediation methods that have been developed to clean up groundwater. 

Prerequisites: Permission of Instructor. Requires undergraduate courses in aqueous geochemistry (EASC 315 equivalent), physical hydrogeology (EASC 304 equivalent), and groundwater flow modeling (EASC 415 equivalent).  

Course Topics:
1.   Overview of Groundwater Contamination
2.   Mass Transport in Saturated Media - concepts and equations for mass transport, analytical solutions, field measurements, scale dependence, plumes.
3.   Inorganic Chemicals in Groundwater – chemical processes in the unsaturated and saturated zones, mixing & zonation, inorganic contaminants
4.   Organic Compounds in Groundwater - naming and properties of organics
5.   Transformation, Retardation and Attenuation – processes, chemical partitioning
6.   Monitoring and Sampling – site characterization 
7.   Flow and Mass Transport in the Vadose Zone   
8.   Multiphase Flow
9.   Remediation Methods (overview)  

Course Organization:
1 two-hour lecture and 1 three-hour laboratory. The assignments are based on the theory part of the course, and these will be distributed during lab time. A term project consists of the development of a solute transport model implemented in MT3DS (Visual MODFLOW interface).

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

Learning Outcomes:

• Knowledge Development – students integrate their knowledge of types of contaminants (inorganic, organic, radionuclide), sources of contamination, and the physical and chemical processes that control the fate and transport (mobility) of contaminants (liquids – dissolved and free phase, gases) to predict the presence of contaminants in groundwater systems.  How will they move? Will they degrade? How can they be cleaned up? Transport of non-aqueous phase liquids /gases in the groundwater context is analogous to transport of oil and gas in petroleum reservoirs.
• Analytical Skill Development: students learn analytical methods (computational and lab experiments) for quantifying fate and transport of a variety of contaminants within a groundwater system.
• Computing Skills: Students further develop skills in spreadsheets (calculation, graphing), numerical modeling using specialized software (introductory level).
• Writing Skill Development: Students write a proposal in response to a call for proposals for a particular contaminated site.
• Oral Presentation Skill Development:  Students present their proposal orally.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

RECOMMENDED READING: