Abstract
It is well known that the same characteristics that make karst groundwater systems highly productive make them very vulnerable to contamination. Once in the subsurface, many contaminants move along and spread across flow lines, interact with media and environmental compartments, and react with chemical and biological entities. All of these processes occur within a highly dynamic and heterogeneous framework that affects the mobility, persistence, and potential exposure of humans and wildlife. Fundamental knowledge exists on many of these processes, and several predictive and characterization models have been developed and applied to karst systems. Yet tremendous challenges and uncertainty are faced when trying to predict exposure, implement remedial actions, and manage contaminated systems, particularly in a changing world. This paper discusses the state of knowledge, modeling capabilities, and sources of uncertainty when assessing the fate, transport, and exposure of legacy and emerging contaminants in karst systems. Although applicable to many sites, the discussion is framed around particular examples of extensive contamination in the karst region of northern Puerto Rico, and how these compare to more densely lithified karst systems associated with continental karst. It focuses on contaminants related to industrial, agricultural, and personal care activities. Despite the advancements made on understanding and modeling fate and transport processes, large uncertainty remains on source and system characteristics, scale-dependent model applicability, spatiotemporal data resolution, and the effect of hydrologic conditions and anthropogenic intervention.
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This project is supported by Grant Award Number P42ES017198 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences or the National Institutes of Health.
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Padilla, I.Y., Vesper, D.J. (2018). Fate, Transport, and Exposure of Emerging and Legacy Contaminants in Karst Systems: State of Knowledge and Uncertainty. In: White, W., Herman, J., Herman, E., Rutigliano, M. (eds) Karst Groundwater Contamination and Public Health. Advances in Karst Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51070-5_5
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