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Evaluation of Surface Impoundment Assessment in New Mexico
Author(s) -
Person Mark,
Antle Rebecca,
Stephens Daniel B.
Publication year - 1983
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.1745-6584.1983.tb01939.x
Subject(s) - vadose zone , contamination , groundwater , environmental science , hazardous waste , water quality , hydrology (agriculture) , surface water , environmental engineering , soil water , waste management , geology , soil science , engineering , geotechnical engineering , ecology , biology
Surface Impoundment Assessment (SIA) is a methodology for determining the potential for ground‐ water contamination from pits, ponds and lagoons. SIA produces a numerical rating of a site, based on the sum of scores assigned to four categories: vadose zone properties, ground‐water availability, ground‐water quality, and waste characteristics. The SIA for New Mexico was conducted as part of a nationwide survey of potentially hazardous waste‐disposal sites. Comparisons of the contamination potential scores and observed ground‐water contamination from mining, milling, and industrial impoundments in New Mexico using histograms, Mann‐Whitney U‐Test, and linear logistic regression indicate that vadose zone properties and the nature of the waste contribute most to the general success of the SIA method to predict contamination. The remaining two categories which rate ground‐water availability and natural ground‐water quality do not appear to be reasonable measures of ground‐water contamination potential. Rather, these categories are more indicative of the value of the ground‐water resources.