Da. Vroblesky et al., LACK OF CORRELATION BETWEEN ORGANIC-ACID CONCENTRATIONS AND PREDOMINANT ELECTRON-ACCEPTING PROCESSES IN A CONTAMINATED AQUIFER, Environmental science & technology, 31(5), 1997, pp. 1416-1418
Long-term (1992-1995) monitoring data from a petroleum hydrocarbon-con
taminated aquifer were used to examine the hypothesis that concentrati
ons of low molecular weight (LMW) aliphatic organic acids reflect term
inal electron-accepting processes. During the period of study, concent
rations of dissolved hydrogen (H-2) indicated that methanogenic, sulfa
te-reducing, and iron(III)-reducing conditions predominated at the sit
e. However, there was no correlation between LMW organic acid concentr
ations and concentrations of dissolved H-2. These results indicate tha
t organic acid concentrations are not a reliable indicator of local re
dox conditions at this site.