Lecture 9 - Groundwater Pollution Lecture

Ain Shams University Irrigation and Hydraulics Department
Faculty of Engineering Groundwater Hydrology
Lecture 8
Groundwater Pollution
By:
Prof. Ahmed Ali A. Hassan
Dr. Peter Hany Sobhy Riad
Groundwater Pollution Sources
Groundwater pollution sources
• Domestic: breaking of sewers or percolation from
septic tanks.
• Industrial: Heavy metals in waste water.
• Agricultural: fertilizers, salts and pesticides.
• Environmental: Flow through carbonate rocks,
sea water intrusion, acidic rains.
• Wastes Disposal: Landfills (rubbish or radioactive
or nuclear wastes.
• Oil accidents: break of oil pipeline or during
transport.
Types of solutes
• There are two types of solutes; conservative
and non conservative.
• Conservative solutes remain stable in

groundwater and do not change due to
physical, biological and chemical processes.
Main contaminant transport
mechanisms in saturated zone
• Advection.
• Diffusion.
• Dispersion.
• Retardation (adsorption and absorption).
• Self decaying (non conservative).
development of a contamination
plume
The development of a contamination plume

from a continuous source
Advection
• Advection is the mass transport caused by the
bulk movement of flowing groundwater where
the driving force is the hydraulic gradient.
Advection (contd.)
The one-dimensional transport
equation in its simplest form Fadv = advective mass flux
[M/L²T]
• ∂C/∂t = Veff ∂C/∂x
veff = effective flow velocity
Where Veff = Vdarcy/neff [L/T]
c = concentration
Fadv = ne ⋅ v ⋅ c [M/L³]
eff ne = effective porosity
[-]
K ∂h K = coefficient permeability
veff =− [L/T]
ne ∂x
dh/dx = gradient in x-direction
[-]
Diffusion
• Mass transport caused by molecular
movements of dissolved substances according
to 1st Fick law.
Diffusion (Contd.)
Fdiff = -neff Deff ∂C/∂x
Where;
F = mass flux of solute/unit area/unit time [M/L2/T]
Deff = effective diffusion coefficient [L2/T]
Deff = τ *Dm , where Dm is diffusion coefficient and
τ is the tortuosity (Lth/Lreal) = 0.5 to 0.8
∂C/∂x =concentration gradient [M/L3/L]
Diffusion (contd.)
Diffusion coefficients are substance specific!
Typical molecular (aquatic) diffusion coefficients Dm in water:
Dm in [1*10-9 m2*s-1] at 20° C
Cations H+ 8,5 Na+ 1,19 K+ 1,75 NH4+ 1,77 Mg2+ 0,63 Ca2+ 0,71
Anions OH- 4,71 NO3- 1,69 HCO3- 1,1 CO32- 0,83 SO42- 0,94 HS- 0,92
Gases Air 1,94 O2 2,02 N2 1,77 CO2 1,74 CH4 1,57 Rn 1,21
Approximation: Dm ≈ 1-2·10-9 m²/s.
Example: salt diffusion
dc = 1 g/l = 1 kg/m³ ⇒ Fdiff = 0.3 * 1·10-9 m²/s * ((1 kg/m³)/(1 m))

dx = 1 m = 3 ·10-10 kg/s
n = 0.3
Dm = 1·10-9 m²/s = 9,46 g/yr (per m² area)
Dispersion
Dispersion is caused by the tortuosity of
the flow paths of the groundwater as it
travels through the interconnected pores
of the soil.
Tortuosity is the ratio between the theoretical lenght and the real
length which flows take
The mass flux due to dispersion
∂c
Fdisp = −ne ⋅ Dd ⋅
∂x
Dd .l = αl ⋅ veff In longitudinal X-direction
Where Dd.l = dispersion coefficient [L2/T]
Where αl = dispersivity coefficient [L]

Factors causing longitudinal dispersion
longitudinal and transverse
dispersion
Hydrodynamic Dispersion
• Hydrodynamic dispersion denotes the
spreading (at the macroscopic level) resulting
from both mechanical dispersion and
molecular diffusion. Actually both processes
are inseparable (Bear 1979).
• Dhd=Ddv+Ddm
negligible
Contaminant concentration distributions at (t = 0, 5, 10 and
20 s) for advection and diffusion–dispersion
Adsorption, Absorption and Ion
Exchange
General transport equation
Boundary Conditions
1. C(x, t = 0) = 0
2. C(x=0, 0<t<T)= C0 where T is the injection time
3. ∂C/∂x (x=∞, t) = 0
R∂C/∂t = Dhd∂2C/∂x2 -veff∂C/∂x –λC ± Q`C`
dispersion advection
Self decay External conc.
R: Retardation factor (≤ 1)
The exact analytical solution of the
ADE (Advection-Dispersion Equation)
Check:
if Pe >10
then this
term = 0
Where:
If no decay (consevative then λ = 0 and γ= 1
Pe = X/αL
Capture Zones of Pumping Wells
• If the groundwater table is flat, the capture

zone is circular. However, in most cases the
groundwater table is sloping.
• Calculating capture zones of wells aids in the
design of pump-and-treat groundwater
remediation systems, and well-head
protection zones.
Assumptions for capture zone
calculations
(1) The aquifer is homogeneous, isotropic, and
infinite in horizontal extent.
(2) Uniform flow (steady-state) conditions prevail.
(3) A confined aquifer has uniform transmissivity
and no leakage.
(4) An unconfined aquifer has a horizontal lower
confining layer with no leakage and no recharge
from precipitation.
(5) Vertical gradients are negligible.
(6) The well is screened through the full saturated
thickness of the aquifer and pumps at a constant
rate.
Capture Zone in a steady-state flow
GW flow direction
Capture zone of a pumping well in plan view. The well is located at the
origin (0,0) of the x,y plane
Equations for Confined steady-state
flow
stagnation point at X0
Q = pumping rate [L3/T]

maximum width of
K = hydraulic conductivity [L/T] the capture zone
b = aquifer thickness [L]
i = hydraulic gradient of the flow field in
the absence of the pumping well (dh/dx)
Equations for unconfined aquifer
Example:
• Confined aquifer
• K = 80 m/day
• b = 50 m
• i = 1/200 = 0.005
• Q = 19,250 m3/day
Solution:
• Find maximum extent of capture zone:
yc = Q/Kbi = 960 m or ± 480 m from the x axis.
• Find location of stagnation point:
x0 = - yc/2π = - 150 m
• Delineate boundary of the capture zone:
Calculate x according to ±y = 1, 100, 200, 300,

400, 450, 480 and find y at x = 2000 m
Analysis of the example results
The capture zone at a distance x = 2,000 m
from the pumping well extends 450 m from
the horizontal (x) axis. Therefore, initial
calculations indicate that a portion of the
contaminant plume will contaminate the
municipal water supply unless mitigative
measures are taken. Further investigation is
warranted.
Thank you for the Attention
‫ﺷﻛﺭﺍً ﻟ ُﺣﺳﻥ ﺇﺳﺗﻣﺎﻋ ُﻛﻡ‬

ُ
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?227347
Section on Assignment 4
s´= s - srec
Recovery test problem
A total drawdown of 11 m was recorded in an observation
well at r = 30 m from a pumping well during a pumping test
where the discharge was 1100 m3/d. After stopping the pump
a recovery test was done to check the aquifer parameters
which were calculated from the pumping test results. The
residual observed drawdowns with respect to the time
measured after the pump stopped are shown in the following
table. It is required to calculate the aquifer transmissivity and
storativity.
Time-Residual Drawdown Graph
0
Residual Drawdown, s' (m)
8 ∆s’ = 5.2 m
10
12
1.E+00 1.E+01 1.E+02 1.E+03
Time ratio, t/t'
Transmissivity can be calculated from a log(time ratio)-residual

drawdown (s’) graph by determining the gradient. For such cases,
the x-axis is log(t/t’) and thus is a ratio.
Another method
Srecovered = 11-S´
Time t´ (hr.) 0.18 0.25 0.33 0.4 0.5 0.65 0.85 1
S´residual (m) 9.2 9 8.6 8.3 8 7.5 7 6.7
Srec (m) 1.8 2 2.4 2.7 3 3.5 4 4.3
Time t´ (hr.) 2 3.5 5 7 10 11 12 13

S´residual (m) 5.5 4.5 3.3 3 2.1 0.8 0.2 0.1
Srec (m) 5.5 6.5 7.7 8 8.9 10.2 10.8 10.9
Srec= 2.3 Q/4πT*log(2.25Tt´/r2S)
ΔSrec.=2.3Q/4πT*(1)
Time-Recovery Graph
0.00
Est. recovery, s - s' (m)
2.00
4.00
to’ = 0.12 hrs
6.00
8.00 ∆sr = 4.6 m
10.00
12.00
1.E-02 1.E-01 1.E+00 1.E+01 1.E+02
Time after pumping stopped, t' (hrs)
Aquifer characteristics can be calculated from a log(time)-

recovery plot but the drawdown (s) curve for the pumping
phase must be extrapolated to estimate recovery (s - s’)
To calculate the storativity
2.25Tto´/r2S = 1
Time-Recovery Graph
0.00
Est. recovery, s - s' (m)
2.00
4.00
to’ = 0.12 hrs
6.00
8.00 ∆sr = 4.6 m
10.00
12.00
1.E-02 1.E-01 1.E+00 1.E+01 1.E+02
Time after pumping stopped, t' (hrs)
Aquifer characteristics can be calculated from a log(time)-

recovery plot but the drawdown (s) curve for the pumping
phase must be extrapolated to estimate recovery (s - s’)

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Ain Shams University Irrigation and Hydraulics Department

Faculty of Engineering Groundwater Hydrology

• Conservative solutes remain stable in

The development of a contamination plume

Approximation: Dm ≈ 1-2·10-9 m²/s.

Example: salt diffusion

dc = 1 g/l = 1 kg/m³ ⇒ Fdiff = 0.3 * 1·10-9 m²/s * ((1 kg/m³)/(1 m))

Where Dd.l = dispersion coefficient [L2/T]

Where αl = dispersivity coefficient [L]

R∂C/∂t = Dhd∂2C/∂x2 -veff∂C/∂x –λC ± Q`C`

• If the groundwater table is flat, the capture

Q = pumping rate [L3/T]

Calculate x according to ±y = 1, 100, 200, 300,

‫ﺷﻛﺭﺍً ﻟ ُﺣﺳﻥ ﺇﺳﺗﻣﺎﻋ ُﻛﻡ‬

Transmissivity can be calculated from a log(time ratio)-residual

Time t´ (hr.) 2 3.5 5 7 10 11 12 13

Srec= 2.3 Q/4πT*log(2.25Tt´/r2S)

8.00 ∆sr = 4.6 m

Aquifer characteristics can be calculated from a log(time)-

8.00 ∆sr = 4.6 m

Aquifer characteristics can be calculated from a log(time)-

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