Use of colloid filtration theory in modeling movement of bacteria through a contaminated sandy aquifer

Environmental Science & Technology
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Abstract

\A filtration model commonly used to describe removal of colloids during packed-bed filtration in water treatment applications was modified for describing downgradient transport of bacteria in sandy, aquifer sediments. The modified model was applied to the results of a small-scale (7 m), natural-gradient tracer test and to observations of an indigenous bacterial population moving downgradient within a plume of organically contaminated groundwater in Cape Cod, MA. The model reasonably accounted for concentration histories of labeled bacteria appearing at samplers downgradient from the injection well in the tracer experiment and for the observed 0.25-μm increase in average cell length for an unlabeled, indigenous bacterial population, 0.6 km downgradient from the source of the plume. Several uncertainties were apparent in applying filtration theory to problems involving transport of bacteria in groundwater. However, adsorption (attachment) appeared to be a major control of the extent of bacterial movement downgradient, which could be described, in part, by filtration theory. Estimates of the collision efficiency factor, which represents the physicochemical factors that determine adsorption of the bacteria onto the grain surfaces, ranged from 5.4 x 10-3 to 9.7 x 10-3.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Use of colloid filtration theory in modeling movement of bacteria through a contaminated sandy aquifer
Series title Environmental Science & Technology
DOI 10.1021/es00013a021
Volume 25
Issue 1
Year Published 1991
Language English
Publisher ACS
Contributing office(s) Toxic Substances Hydrology Program
Description 8 p.
First page 178
Last page 185
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