A biogeochemical transport model to simulate the attenuation of chlorinated hydrocarbon contaminant fluxes across the groundwater-surface water interface

Chlorinated hydrocarbons originating from point sources are amongst the most prevalent contaminants of ground water and surface water resources. Riparian zones may play an important role in the attenuation of contaminant concentrations when contaminant plumes flow from groundwater to surface water because of the occurrence of redox gradients, strongly reductive conditions and high biological activity.

In order to meet the expectations of the EU Water Framework Directive, an evaluation of the impact of such plumes on surface water is needed. The aim of this work is to develop a groundwater transport and biogeochemical transformation model of the discharge of a TCE plume into a stream, and to determine which parameters most strongly affect pollutant discharge concentrations.

Here biological kinetics and the interaction with the soil matrix are implemented in PHREEQC. The ability of PHREEQC to deal with a large number of geochemical processes, allows the simulation of soil geochemical transformations when microbial by-products are released to surface water, and the consideration of non-linear feedbacks on bacterial growth and pollutant transformations.

Sensitivity analysis is performed through Monte Carlo simulations to identify the dominant parameters influencing chlorinated solvents degradation.