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Modeling natural attenuation of petroleum hydrocarbon contamination using alternate electron acceptors: Case study comparing bioplume iii with BIOSCREEN
Author(s) -
Akins Candy R.,
Striegel Jami A.,
Sanders Dee Ann,
Veenstra John N.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
remediation journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.762
H-Index - 27
eISSN - 1520-6831
pISSN - 1051-5658
DOI - 10.1002/rem.3440100405
Subject(s) - contamination , attenuation , environmental science , petroleum , hydrocarbon , groundwater , natural (archaeology) , environmental chemistry , yield (engineering) , petroleum product , nitrate , sulfate , environmental engineering , waste management , chemistry , geology , engineering , geotechnical engineering , materials science , ecology , paleontology , physics , organic chemistry , optics , metallurgy , biology
Natural attenuation holds great promise as a cost‐effective means of remedying groundwater contamination at petroleum spill sites: this is particularly true at sites with sufficient background concentrations of alternate electron acceptors (nitrate and/or sulfate). The study reported in this article compared the results of a new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) numerical model (BIOPLUME III) with an updated EPA analytical model (BIOSCREEN Version 1.4) used to predict natural attenuation at an underground fuel spill site in Oklahoma. High background sulfate concentrations were shown to result in unrealistic predictions from both BIOSCREEN and BIOPLUME III. BIOSCREEN could be easily used with a data set not significantly enlarged from that used in a routine leaking fuel tank investigation. BIOPLUME III was much more difficult to use and did not yield reliable results. Results of this study indicate that the additional complexity of the BIOPLUME III model is not justified for simple sites.