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Soil gas transport above a jet fuel/solvent spill at Plattsburgh Air Force Base

2000; Wiley; Volume: 36; Issue: 9 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1029/2000wr900128

1944-7973

David W. Ostendorf, Erich S. Hinlein, Alan J. Lutenegger, S. Kelley,

CO2 Sequestration and Geologic Interactions

We calibrate a stoichiometrically coupled soil gas diffusion model with spatially resolved observations of oxygen, carbon dioxide, total hydrocarbon, and trichloroethylene vapor concentrations in the unsaturated zone above a weathered jet fuel/solvent spill at Plattsburgh Air Force Base in upstate New York. The calibration suggests that aerobic microorganisms in the capillary fringe degrade jet fuel vapor at a steady rate of 9.5 μg hydrocarbons (m −2 s −1 ). The solvent does not degrade in the fringe, however, and the model and data estimate a steady evaporation rate of 1.2×10 −2 μg TCE (m −2 s −1 ). Barometric pumping slightly alters the steady concentration profile at Plattsburgh, although the transient advective flux is the same order of magnitude as the steady diffusive flux. We derive a simple perturbation theory for the second‐order transient concentration corrections and include it in the calibration. The perturbation theory is valid at Plattsburgh because the soil is uniform and permeable with a relatively deep capillary fringe.