Nt. Nelson et al., Partitioning tracer method for the in situ measurement of DNAPL saturation: Influence of heterogeneity and sampling method, ENV SCI TEC, 33(22), 1999, pp. 4046-4053
Citations number
22
Categorie Soggetti
Environment/Ecology,"Environmental Engineering & Energy
The purpose of this work was to examine the effect of porous-media heteroge
neity, nonuniform distribution of dense nonaqueous phase liquid (DNAPL), an
d sampling method on the performance of the partitioning tracer method for
measuring DNAPL saturation in water-saturated subsurface systems. Experimen
ts were conducted in an intermediate-scale flow cell that contained two dis
crete zones of trichloroethene (TCE) at residual saturation. One zone (zone
2) consisted of similar to 10% saturation formed in the same sand as used
for the flow-cell matrix. The other zone (zone 1) consisted of similar to 1
0% saturation in a finer sand emplaced within the coarser matrix. Aqueous s
amples were collected using depth-specific sampling, using vertically integ
rated sampling, and at the extraction well. A dual-energy gamma radiation s
ystem was used to measure TCE saturation before and after the tracer experi
ment, allowing the measurements obtained from the tracer experiment to be c
ompared to a previously tested method. The saturations estimated using the
data collected at paint-sampling ports located downgradient of zones 1 and
2 were approximately 7% and 50% of the true values, respectively. The satur
ations estimated using the data obtained from the vertically integrated por
ts were 0% and 6% of the true values, respectively. Finally, the saturation
estimated using the extraction-well data was 30% of the cell-wide averaged
value. These results indicate that the presence of porous-media heterogene
ity and a variable distribution of DNAPL saturation can lead to reduced acc
uracy of the partitioning tracer test. The reduced performance can be impro
ved, in part, by using depth-specific sampling.