Topics in Environmental Forensics

Four Practical Reasons to Use a Groundwater Model

(Assuming you have a thorough understanding of the site conditions)

      Reason #1: Where will the groundwater go and where will the chemicals in the groundwater go in the future?  Sometimes you need to predict where chemicals in the groundwater will go in the future.  Many problems involving chemicals in groundwater can be addressed using groundwater flow models and particle tracking.  Particle tracking follows hypothetical particles, which represent chemicals as they move in the groundwater.  For simple problems where flow directions remain constant and the geology is simple, groundwater models are not required.  For everything else, you need an experienced modeler and an appropriate model.

        Reason #2: What happened 10, 20, or 50 years ago?  There are times when you need to recreate chemical flow paths where conditions and sources have changed in the past.  Similar to the above, recreating what happened in the past can be addressed using groundwater flow models and particle tracking.  As noted above, for most simple problems where flow directions have been constant and the geology is simple and there is only one source of the chemical, models are not required.  For everything else, you need an experienced modeler and an appropriate model.

      Reason #3: Test your understanding of the groundwater system.  When addressing complex groundwater issues, you must be confident in your understanding of the geology and groundwater flow conditions at your site.  A groundwater flow model integrates the laws of groundwater flow with the hydrogeologic framework that you have developed.  The groundwater model tests how well you understand the actual site conditions by comparing observed and modeled data.  Observed and modeled water levels, flow direction, and velocities should be similar.

      Reason #4:  Does it all fit?  Finally, there are those instances when you need to interpolate data between your observed data. No matter how many soil borings, monitoring wells, and field tests you have to characterize a site, you have literally only scratched the surface.  Groundwater flow models allow the modeler to determine the most likely combination of geologic and hydraulic characteristics between the known data points.  The groundwater model tests how well each combination of interpolated properties works by comparing observed and modeled data.

     Groundwater models can be great tools to solve practical hydrogeologic problems or they can be a great waste of time and money.  Regardless of your approach, when you are going before state or federal regulators or before the court; you never ever want to find that they know more than you do about your environmental issue.

        If you have further questions regarding environmental forensics, contact Michael Sklash, Ph.D., P.Eng. at 248.932.0228 or by email.  Are you looking for litigation support?  Ask Mike about our litigation support experience when you contact him.

      Dragun Corporation^® 2007

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