Modeling Organic Contaminant Sorption Impacts on Aquifer Restoration

摘要

The groundwater resources of the U.S. have been contaminated by a variety of organic pollutants that include solvents, petroleum products, and pesticides. A need exists to understand the movement of contaminants in the subsurface so that: (1) an assessment of the risk due to contamination may be made, (2) an economical and environmentally acceptable response to contamination may be designed, and (3) an appropriate ranking of sites that require clean-up and that are competing for the same fixed pool of resources may be accomplished. Many common organic contaminants sorb to solid surfaces, like soils or aquifer materials. The work focuses on the investigation of the sorption process in the subsurface.