Transport and transformations of chlorinated-solvent contamination in a saprolite and fractured rock aquifer near a former wastewater-treatment plant, Greenville, South Carolina

Water-Resources Investigations Report 97-4003
By: , and 

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Abstract

The transport and fate of chlorinated-ethene contamination was investigated in a fractured-rock aquifer downgradient from a wastewater-treatment plant at a gas-turbine manufacturing facility in Greenville, South Carolina. A vapor-diffusion-sampler technique, developed for this investigation, located fracture zones that discharged contaminated ground water to surface water. The distribution of chlorinated compounds and sulfate, comparison of borehole geophysical data, driller's logs, and the aquifer response to pumpage allowed subsurface contaminant-transport pathways to be delineated.The probable contaminant-transport pathway from the former aeration lagoon was southward. The probable pathway of contaminant transport from the former sludge lagoon was southward to and beneath Little Rocky Creek. South of the creek, the major pathway of contaminant transport appeared to be at a depth of approximately 80 to 107 feet below land surface. The contaminant-transport pathway from the former industrial lagoon was not readily discernible from existing data. A laboratory investigation, as well as examination of ground- water-chemistry data collected during this investigation and concentrations of chlorinated compounds collected during previous investigations,indicates that higher chlorinated compounds are being degraded to lower-chlorinated compounds in the contaminated aquifer. The approaches used in this investigation, as well as the findings, have potential application to other fractured-rock aquifers contaminated by chlorinated ethenes.

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Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Transport and transformations of chlorinated-solvent contamination in a saprolite and fractured rock aquifer near a former wastewater-treatment plant, Greenville, South Carolina
Series title Water-Resources Investigations Report
Series number 97-4003
DOI 10.3133/wri974003
Year Published 1997
Language English
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Publisher location Reston, VA
Contributing office(s) Office of Ground Water, South Atlantic Water Science Center
Description vi, 76 p.
Country United States
State South Carolina
City Greenville
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