Research Projects for 2007
ME08140-07 Reeve, A.
Characterizing ground-water flow and chemical transport in fractured bedrock at deicing-salt contaminated sites
Domestic wells typically penetrate into the bedrock and extract ground water from fractures. These wells are threatened by a variety of human activities. Once contaminated, a detailed understanding the ground-water hydraulics of fractured bedrock aquifers is required to predict ground-water flow direction and identify potential receptors. This project will focus on several Maine DOT facilities where deicing salts appear to have contaminated the fractured bedrock aquifer. Borehole geophysics will be used to characterize the ground-water flow and distribution of road deicing salt within boreholes at these sites. Computer programs will be used to simulate the ground-water flow and solute transport within a borehole and within a fracture network and compared to the hydrologic and chemical data to create conceptualized ground-water flow and solute transport computer models of these sites.
