Dataset Information

Investigating the Role of Soil Texture in Vapor Intrusion from Groundwater Sources.

ABSTRACT: Soil texture is believed to play a significant role in the migration of subsurface volatile chemicals into buildings at contaminated sites, an exposure process known as vapor intrusion (VI). In this study, we investigated the role of soil texture in determining the attenuation of contaminant soil gas concentration from groundwater source to receptor building. We performed soil column experiments, numerical simulations, and statistical analysis of the USEPA's VI database. The soil column experiments were conducted with commercial sand and soils with sand and sandy loam textures. Measured one-dimensional soil gas concentration profiles were compared with numerical predictions. Good agreement between experiments and model results supports the use of the classical multiphase chemical transport equation for simulating contaminant vapor transport from groundwater through the vadose zone. A full three-dimensional numerical model was then used to simulate typical VI scenarios with groundwater sources. Results indicate that, although soil particle texture can play a role in determining subslab-to-indoor air concentration attenuation, there is no obvious relationship between soil particle size and groundwater source-to-subslab except in the case of a shallow contaminant source. This conclusion is consistent with results reported in USEPA's VI database, in which variation in soil particle size does not affect source-to-subslab attenuation factors but does influence subslab-to-indoor air concentration attenuation factors by an average of about 0.4 order of magnitude. This finding suggests that an appropriate focus of VI site investigation should include the shallow soil beneath the building foundation.

SUBMITTER: Yao Y

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5783187 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Investigating the Role of Soil Texture in Vapor Intrusion from Groundwater Sources.

Yao Yijun Y Wang Yue Y Zhong Zhong Z Tang Mengling M Suuberg Eric M EM

Journal of environmental quality 20170701 4

Soil texture is believed to play a significant role in the migration of subsurface volatile chemicals into buildings at contaminated sites, an exposure process known as vapor intrusion (VI). In this study, we investigated the role of soil texture in determining the attenuation of contaminant soil gas concentration from groundwater source to receptor building. We performed soil column experiments, numerical simulations, and statistical analysis of the USEPA's VI database. The soil column experime ...[more]

PMID: 28783798

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Project description:High quality coastal aquifer systems provide vast quantities of potable groundwater for millions of people worldwide. Managing this setting has economic and environmental consequences. Specific knowledge of the dynamic relationship between fresh terrestrial groundwater discharging to the ocean and seawater intrusion is necessary. We present multi- disciplinary research that assesses the relationships between groundwater throughflow and seawater intrusion. This combines numerical simulation, geophysics, and analysis of more than 30 years of data from a seawater intrusion monitoring site. The monitoring wells are set in a shallow karstic aquifer system located along the southwest coast of Western Australia, where hundreds of gigalitres of fresh groundwater flow into the ocean annually. There is clear evidence for seawater intrusion along this coastal margin. We demonstrate how hydraulic anisotropy will impact on the landward extent of seawater for a given groundwater throughflow. Our examples show how the distance between the ocean and the seawater interface toe can shrink by over 100% after increasing the rotation angle of hydraulic conductivity anisotropy when compared to a homogeneous aquifer. We observe extreme variability in the properties of the shallow aquifer from ground penetrating radar, hand samples, and hydraulic parameters estimated from field measurements. This motived us to complete numerical experiments with sets of spatially correlated random hydraulic conductivity fields, representative of karstic aquifers. The hydraulic conductivity proximal to the zone of submarine groundwater discharge is shown to be significant in determining the overall geometry and landward extent of the seawater interface. Electrical resistivity imaging (ERI) data was acquired and assessed for its ability to recover the seawater interface. Imaging outcomes from field ERI data are compared with simulated ERI outcomes derived from transport modelling with a range of hydraulic conductivity distributions. This process allows for interpretation of the approximate geometry of the seawater interface, however recovery of an accurate resistivity distribution across the wedge and mixing zone remains challenging. We reveal extremes in groundwater velocity, particularly where fresh terrestrial groundwater discharges to the ocean, and across the seawater recirculation cell. An overarching conclusion is that conventional seawater intrusion monitoring wells may not be suitable to constrain numerical simulation of the seawater intrusion. Based on these lessons, we present future options for groundwater monitoring that are specifically designed to quantify the distribution of; (i) high vertical and horizontal pressure gradients, (ii) sharp variations in subsurface flow velocity, (iii) extremes in hydraulic properties, and (iv) rapid changes in groundwater chemistry. These extremes in parameter distribution are common in karstic aquifer systems at the transition from land to ocean. Our research provides new insights into the behaviour of groundwater in dynamic, densely populated, and ecologically sensitive coastal environments found worldwide.

Project description:Human exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) via vapor intrusion (VI) is an emerging public health concern with notable detrimental impacts on public health. Phytoforensics, plant sampling to semi-quantitatively delineate subsurface contamination, provides a potential non-invasive screening approach to detect VI potential, and plant sampling is effective and also time- and cost-efficient. Existing VI assessment methods are time- and resource-intensive, invasive, and require access into residential and commercial buildings to drill holes through basement slabs to install sampling ports or require substantial equipment to install groundwater or soil vapor sampling outside the home. Tree-core samples collected in 2 days at the PCE Southeast Contamination Site in York, Nebraska were analyzed for tetrachloroethene (PCE) and results demonstrated positive correlations with groundwater, soil, soil-gas, sub-slab, and indoor-air samples collected over a 2-year period. Because tree-core samples were not collocated with other samples, interpolated surfaces of PCE concentrations were estimated so that comparisons could be made between pairs of data. Results indicate moderate to high correlation with average indoor-air and sub-slab PCE concentrations over long periods of time (months to years) to an interpolated tree-core PCE concentration surface, with Spearman's correlation coefficients (?) ranging from 0.31 to 0.53 that are comparable to the pairwise correlation between sub-slab and indoor-air PCE concentrations (? = 0.55, n = 89). Strong correlations between soil-gas, sub-slab, and indoor-air PCE concentrations and an interpolated tree-core PCE concentration surface indicate that trees are valid indicators of potential VI and human exposure to subsurface environment pollutants. The rapid and non-invasive nature of tree sampling are notable advantages: even with less than 60 trees in the vicinity of the source area, roughly 12 hours of tree-core sampling with minimal equipment at the PCE Southeast Contamination Site was sufficient to delineate vapor intrusion potential in the study area and offered comparable delineation to traditional sub-slab sampling performed at 140 properties over a period of approximately 2 years.

Dataset Information

Investigating the Role of Soil Texture in Vapor Intrusion from Groundwater Sources.

Publications

Investigating the Role of Soil Texture in Vapor Intrusion from Groundwater Sources.

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