Citation

Marruffo A, Yoon H, Schaeffer DJ, Barkan CP, Saat MR, Werth CJ. Ground Water 2012; 50(4): 627-632.

Affiliation

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 205 N. Mathews Ave., Urbana, IL 61801. Department of Veterinary Biosciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1745-6584.2011.00863.x

PMID

21895646

Abstract

We developed a new semi-analytical source zone depletion model (SZDM) for multicomponent light nonaqueous phase liquids (LNAPLs) and incorporated this into an existing screening model for estimating cleanup times for chemical spills from railroad tank cars that previously considered only single-component LNAPLs. Results from the SZDM compare favorably to those from a three-dimensional numerical model, and from another semi-analytical model that does not consider source zone depletion. The model was used to evaluate groundwater contamination and cleanup times for four complex mixtures of concern in the railroad industry. Among the petroleum hydrocarbon mixtures considered, the cleanup time of diesel fuel was much longer than E95, gasoline, and crude oil. This is mainly due to the high fraction of low solubility components in diesel fuel. The results demonstrate that the updated screening model with the newly developed SZDM is computationally efficient, and provides valuable comparisons of cleanup times that can be used in assessing the health and financial risk associated with chemical mixture spills from railroad-tank-car accidents.

Language: en