Groundwater modeling applied to production well management in a contaminated aquifer

A study was conducted to evaluate production strategies for a well field system near a source of groundwater contamination. Numerical modeling of groundwater flow was employed to generate hydraulic head configurations for different production scenarios. For a given scenario, an evaluation of contamination susceptibility was made by comparing head distributions in two aquifer units to the positions of the contaminant source and discharging water supply wells. The results of this study suggest that groundwater flow modeling can be a useful technique for planning the production of water supply wells in aquifers at risk of contamination from anthropogenic pollution sources.