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Detecting Changes in Ground Water Quality at Regulated Facilities |
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| Authors: | Jim C Loftis Jane Harris Robert H Montgomery |
| Institution: | Jim C. Loftis is an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and ChemicalEngineering at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523. He received his B.S. in agricultural engineering from Oklahoma State University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in agricultural engineering from Colorado State University. His research interests include water quality monitoring, water quality hydrology, and systems analysis in soil and water problems. His research in monitoring has been funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Geological Survey. He has also worked with IBM Corp. in the design of water quality monitoring and data management systems for the industrial sector.;Jane Harris is a graduate research assistant in the Department of Agricultural and Chemical Engineering at Colorado State University. She holds a B.S. in psychology from the University of Tennessee, a B.S. in biological engineering from Mississippi State University, and an M.S. in agricultural engineering from Louisiana Tech University. She has worked as a bioengineer for Mt U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and as a hydrologist for S.E. Huey Co. in Monroe, Louisiana. Her Ph.D. research topic is trend detection in ground water quality.;Robert H. Montgomery is a graduate research assistant in the Department of CivilEngineering at Colorado State University. He received his B. S. in fisheries aria wildlife and his M.S. in resource development from Michigan State University. As a systems analyst with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, Mississippi, he worked on detection of trends in lake water quality. His Ph.D. research topic is characterization of uncertainty in ground water quality data. |
| Abstract: | The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (PL 94–580) and related federal and state legislation have mandated routine monitoring of ground water quality at regulated facilities. The objective of the required monitoring activities is detection of adverse changes in ground water quality caused by the facilities. Both failure to detect pollution and an incorrect determination of pollution can be very expensive. It is crucial, therefore, that monitoring programs be designed and operated to provide statistically sound information. It is equally important that users of ground water quality data understand the nature and limitations of information from monitoring. To address the preceding issues, the authors present a general approach to analyzing ground water quality data in light of the stated monitoring objective. The suggested approach accounts for "natural" variation in background water quality through pairing of observations. The limitations of quarterly sampling for detecting small changes in quality over a short time frame are discussed. |
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