Ground-Water Quality at a Creosote Waste Site |
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| Authors: | P. B. Bedient A. C. Rodgers T. C. Bouvette M. B. Tomson T. H. Wang |
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| Affiliation: | Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Rice University, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, Texas 77251.;Research Scientist, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77251.;Staff Engineer, Dannenbaum Engineering Corporation, Houston, Texas.;Associate Professor of Environmental Science, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas. 77251.;Research Associate, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77251. |
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| Abstract: | An abandoned creosote facility in Conroe, Texas, has become a field site for the National Center for Ground Water Research (NCGWR) at Rice University. Ground-water contamination in the shallow aquifer beneath the site was characterized by sampling soils and water quality at 14 monitoring wells and 35 boreholes. Results from six sampling trips over two years for inorganic and organic chemical concentrations in the ground water show wells around the site were contaminated to levels above 800 μg/l for naphthalene, 400 μg/1 for methyl naphthalene, and 150 μg/1 for dibenzofuran. Conservative constituents, traced by chloride concentrations up to 75 mg/l, have migrated 300 ft (90 m) downgradient of the site. Organic contaminants have been adsorbed and microbially degraded in their migration from the waste source as evidenced by their attenuated concentrations. Detailed field pump tests have been performed to evaluate hydraulic conductivity at several of the shallow wells. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Solute Transport Model (Konikow and Bredehoeft, 1978) has been used to predict chloride plume patterns and evaluate parameters which govern transport processes at the Conroe waste site. |
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