Characterizing Groundwater Contamination Before and During Remediation

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This is an award to support research on predicting the motion of groundwater contaminant plumes taking systematically into account the variability and uncertainties about the source of the contamination. The site characterization procedure may be used to assess the extent and severity of contamination before remediation begins and to evaluate progress during remediation. The procedure to be developed is based on Bayesian estimation techniques that combine field measurements with predictions from a stochastic groundwater model that provides estimates of the mean and variance of solute concentration throughout a contaminated site that are revised whenever new measurements of hydraulic conductivity, pressure head and/or contaminant concentration become available. This research is related to a project previously supported under NSF Grant No. 85-14987. It complements research the investigator is conducting with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences on field studies to characterize the role of sorption on removing contaminants from groundwater. Results of this project are expected to be used to improve the engineering design and operation of systems to decontaminate groundwater aquifers.