Abstract

Characterizing a Contaminated Aquifer with Spatial Modeling
Track: Environmental Management
Authors: Chad Hobson

The US Department of Energy oversees numerous former uranium mill-tailing sites across the USA, many of which exhibit persistent levels of contamination. At DOE�s Rifle, CO site, predictive and suitability models are being used to evaluate spatiotemporal variations in aquifer geochemistry. With techniques like kriging, the aquifer volume can be interpolated for many parameters of interest offering a means to quickly identify areas preferentially contributing to contaminant persistence.