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Contaminant Transport Modeling in Surface Waters

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Computer Modeling of Free-Surface and Pressurized Flows

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((NSSE,volume 274))

Abstract

A current major environmental concern is the release of toxic chemicals to water or the land surface, and their subsequent impacts on aquatic biota and humans. Many toxic contaminants are persistent and undergo complex interactions in the environment. Mathematical models, supported by coordinated laboratory and field measurements, can integrate many of the complex mechanisms controlling contaminant transport and fate in the environment into a single framework. This paper discusses these mechanisms, contaminant transport computer codes for surface waters, and several case studies.

Water and sediment movement, adsorption and desorption, precipitation and dissolution, degradation and decay processes, transformations, and contaminant transfer between surface water and other environmental media must be considered. As examples of computer codes, the unsteady one-dimensional TODAM and Bencala’s models are considered for their model formulations to incorporate these transport and fate mechanisms.

In addition, actual model applications are presented for the migration of radionuclides, pesticides, and heavy metals, in rivers (ranging from small ephemeral creeks in Mortandad and South Mortandad Canyons in New Mexico and the mountain stream of Uvas Creek in California to the large Pripyat River in Ukraine), the James River estuary in Virginia, and Buzzards Bay/New Bedford Harbor in Massachusetts. The applications illustrate the practical use of the codes, including potential environmental clean-up assessments. These examples clearly demonstrate the critical importance of the sediment-contaminant interactions on the long-term distributions of contaminants in surface waters.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pacific Northwest Laboratory Operated by Battelle Memorial institute, U.S. Department of Energy, Richland, Washington, 99352, USA

    Yasuo Onishi

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  1. Yasuo Onishi
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA

    M. Hanif Chaudhry

  2. Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Larry W. Mays

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© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Onishi, Y. (1994). Contaminant Transport Modeling in Surface Waters. In: Chaudhry, M.H., Mays, L.W. (eds) Computer Modeling of Free-Surface and Pressurized Flows. NATO ASI Series, vol 274. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0964-2_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0964-2_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-4417-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-011-0964-2

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