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Publications

Dive into our publications and explore the science from the Environmental Health Program (Toxic Substances Hydrology and Contaminant Biology).

Filter Total Items: 4047

Chlorofluorocarbons (CCl3F and CCl2F2) as dating tools and hydrologic tracers in shallow groundwater of the Delmarva Peninsula, Atlantic Coastal Plain, United States

Concentrations of the Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) CFC-11 and CFC-12 were determined in groundwater from coastal plain sediments of the Delmarva Peninsula. CFC-modeled ages were calculated independently for CFC-11 and CFC-12, and agreed to within 2–3 years in the majority of the waters. Recharge temperatures, determined from dissolved nitrogen and argon concentrations, varied from 9±2°C over most of
Authors
S.A. Dunkle, Niel Plummer, E. Busenberg, P. J. Phillips, J. M. Denver, P. A. Hamilton, R. L. Michel, T. B. Coplen

Adaptive estimation of the log fluctuating conductivity from tracer data at the Cape Cod Site

An adaptive estimation scheme is used to obtain the integral scale and variance of the log-fluctuating conductivity at the Cape Cod site based on the fast Fourier transform/stochastic model of Deng et al. (1993) and a Kalmanlike filter. The filter incorporates prior estimates of the unknown parameters with tracer moment data to adaptively obtain improved estimates as the tracer evolves. The result
Authors
F.W. Deng, J.H. Cushman, J.W. Delleur

Modeling steady-state methanogenic degradation of phenols in groundwater

Field and microcosm observations of methanogenic phenolic compound degradation indicate that Monod kinetics governs the substrate disappearance but overestimates the observed biomass. In this paper we present modeling results from an ongoing multidisciplinary study of methanogenic biodegradation of phenolic compounds in a sand and gravel aquifer contaminated by chemicals and wastes used in wood tr
Authors
Barbara A. Bekins, E. Michael Godsy, Donald F. Goerlitz

Methods of characterizing fluid movement and chemical transport in fractured rock

No abstract available. 
Authors
Paul A. Hsieh, Allen M. Shapiro, C.C. Barton, F. P. Haeni, C. D. Johnson, C. Martin, F.L. Paillet, T. C. Winter, D.L. Wright

Simulating the volatilization of solvents in unsaturated soils during laboratory and field infiltration experiments

This paper describes laboratory and field experiments which were conducted to study the dynamics of trichloroethylene (TCE) as it volatilized from contaminated groundwater and diffused in the presence of infiltrating water through the unsaturated soil zone to the land surface. The field experiments were conducted at the Picatinny Arsenal, which is part of the United States Geological Survey Toxic
Authors
H. Jean Cho, Peter R. Jaffe, James A. Smith

Influence of Pb on microbial activity in Pb-contaminated soils

Investigations of the influence of Pb on soil microbial communities have focused on Pb concentrations of 1 g kg-’ or less (Barkay et al., 1985; Capone et al., 1983; Chang and Broadbent, 1981; Doelman and Haanstra, 1979; Trevors et al., 1985). However, a number of environments exist in which Pb concentrations exceed 1 g kg-’ dry soil (Davenport and Peryea, 1991; Davis et al., 1992; Bisessar, 1982).
Authors
J. E. Landmeyer, P. M. Bradley, F. H. Chapelle

Arsenate inhibition of denitrification in nitrate contaminated sediments

Short-term and chronic exposure effects of arsenic on sediment denitrification were evaluated. N2O production rates were determined for As-contaminated (chronic treatment) and uncontaminated (short-term treatment) sediments exposed to a range of As concentrations. The As-containing sediments, collected from an herbicide-contaminated shallow aquifer, exhibited significantly lower rates of denitrifi
Authors
P. M. Bradley, F. H. Chapelle

Long-term frozen storage of stream water samples for dissolved orthophosphate, nitrate plus nitrite, and ammonia analysis

Many researchers have used freezing as an effective, short-term, water sample preservation method for subsequent nutrient analysis. In this study, filtered samples held at −16±2°C for 4–8 years were reanalyzed for orthophosphate, nitrate plus nitrite, and ammonia. Orthophosphate and ammonia concentrations decreased by 0.2 μg P/L and 5 μg N/L, respectively, at mean concentrations of 69.4 μg P/L and
Authors
Ronald J. Avanzino, Vance C. Kennedy

Midwest water quality project matures

No abstract available
Authors
D Comis, B Hardin, Linda Cooke

Effects of physical and chemical heterogeneity on water-quality samples obtained from wells

Factors that affect the mass of chemical constituents entering a well include the distributions of flow rate and chemical concentrations along and near the screened or open section of the well. Assuming a layered porous medium (with each layer being characterized by a uniform hydraulic conductivity and chemical concentration), a knowledge of the flow from each layer along the screened zone and of
Authors
Thomas E. Reilly, Jacob Gibs

A Fast Fourier transform stochastic analysis of the contaminant transport problem

A three-dimensional stochastic analysis of the contaminant transport problem is developed in the spirit of Naff (1990). The new derivation is more general and simpler than previous analysis. The fast Fourier transformation is used extensively to obtain numerical estimates of the mean concentration and various spatial moments. Data from both the Borden and Cape Cod experiments are used to test the
Authors
F.W. Deng, J.H. Cushman, J.W. Delleur

Degradation of trichloroethylene by Pseudomonas cepacia G4 and the constitutive mutant strain G4 5223 PR1 in aquifer microcosms

Pseudomonas cepacia G4 degrades trichloroethylene (TCE) via a degradation pathway for aromatic compounds which is induced by substrates such as phenol and tryptophan. P. cepacia G4 5223 PR1 (PR1) is a Tn5 insertion mutant which constitutively expresses the toluene ortho-monooxygenase responsible for TCE degradation. In groundwater microcosms, phenol-induced strain G4 and noninduced strain PR1 degr
Authors
M.L. Krumme, K.N. Timmis, D.F. Dwyer