Modeling subsurface contaminant reactions and transport at the watershed scale

Abstract

The objectives of this research are: (1) to numerically examine the multiscale effects of physical and chemical mass transfer processes on watershed scale, variably saturated subsurface contaminant transport, and (2) to conduct numerical simulations on watershed scale reactive solute transport and evaluate their implications to uncertainty characterization and cost benefit analysis. Concurrent physical and chemical nonequilibrium caused by inter aggregate gradients of pressure head and solute concentration and intra-aggregate geochemical and microbiological processes, respectively, may arise at various scales and flowpaths. To this date, experimental investigations of these complex processes at watershed scale remain a challenge and numerical studies are often needed for guidance of water resources management and decision making. This research integrates the knowledge bases developed during previous experimental and numerical investigations at a proposed waste disposal site at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to study the concurrent effects of physical and chemical nonequilibrium. Comparison of numerical results with field data indicates that: (1) multiregion, preferential flow and solute transport exist under partially saturated condition and can be confirmed theoretically, and that (2) mass transfer between pore regions is an important process influencing contaminant movement in the subsurface. Simulations of watershed scale, multi species reactive solute transport suggestmore » that dominance of geochemistry and hydrodynamics may occur simultaneously at different locales and influence the movement of one species relative to another. Execution times on the simulations of the reactive solute transport model also indicate that the model is ready to assist the selection of important parameters for site characterization.« less