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Impact of a Power Plant on the Ground‐Water System of a Wetland
Author(s) -
Andrews Charles B.,
Anderson Mary P.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
groundwater
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.84
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1745-6584
pISSN - 0017-467X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-6584.1978.tb03209.x
Subject(s) - environmental science , groundwater , hydrology (agriculture) , wetland , plume , water cooling , surface water , biota , flushing , water flow , environmental engineering , geology , geotechnical engineering , ecology , meteorology , mechanical engineering , medicine , physics , endocrinology , engineering , biology
ABSTRACT The impacts of a coal‐fired power plant on the ground‐water system of a river floodplain wetland in central Wisconsin were quantified. The most important impacts were those related to the construction of a 200‐ha cooling lake and a 28‐ha ash pit. Several two‐dimensional vertically‐oriented steady‐state models of the ground‐water flow system were used to simulate ground‐water flows before and after the filling of the cooling lake. The results of the simulation and supporting field evidence indicate that the creation of the cooling lake greatly altered the configuration of the flow system and increased the discharge of ground water to the wetland west of the lake by a factor of six. Moreover, ground‐water temperatures have increased because of heat input from the cooling lake. Although the wetland biota are responding to the altered physical environment, the high rate of leakage from the cooling lake is not undesirable from a lake management standpoint. Seepage to the ground‐water system prevents a buildup of dissolved solids which would necessitate periodic flushing of the lake and release of saline water to the Wisconsin River. Since 1975, concentrations of Ca +2 and SO 4 ‐ 2 have increased in ground water around the ash pit, suggesting that seepage is occurring. However, the plume of contaminated ground water is presently confined to a relatively small area around the ash pit.