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WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH, VOL. 41, W12411, doi:10.1029/2005WR004224, 2005

Plume persistence due to aquitard back diffusion following dense nonaqueous phase liquid source removal or isolation

Steven W. Chapman

Department of Earth Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada


Beth L. Parker

Department of Earth Sciences, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada


Abstract

At an industrial site on a sand aquifer overlying a clayey silt aquitard in Connecticut, a zone of trichloroethylene dense nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) at the aquifer bottom was isolated in late 1994 by installation of a steel sheet piling enclosure. In response to this DNAPL isolation, three aquifer monitoring wells located approximately 330 m downgradient exhibited strong TCE declines over the next 2–3 years, from trichloroethylene (TCE) concentrations between 5000 and 30,000 μg/L to values leveling off between 200 and 2000 μg/L. TCE concentrations from analysis of vertical cores from the aquitard below the plume and also from depth-discrete multilevel systems in the aquifer sampled in 2000 were represented in a numerical model. This shows that vertical back diffusion from the aquitard combined with horizontal advection and vertical transverse dispersion account for the TCE distribution in the aquifer and that the aquifer TCE will remain much above the MCL for centuries.

Received 28 April 2005; accepted 4 August 2005; published 6 December 2005.

Keywords: aquitard; diffusion; solute transport; dense nonaqueous phase liquids; trichloroethylene; plume persistence.

Index Terms: 1829 Hydrology: Groundwater hydrology; 1831 Hydrology: Groundwater quality; 1832 Hydrology: Groundwater transport.

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Citation: Chapman, S. W., and B. L. Parker (2005), Plume persistence due to aquitard back diffusion following dense nonaqueous phase liquid source removal or isolation, Water Resour. Res., 41, W12411, doi:10.1029/2005WR004224.