Screening Method for Contaminant Plume Control

Abstract

In many cases, mitigation of the impact of localized groundwater contamination can be achieved, or enhanced, by using groundwater withdrawal and/or injection to control plume migration. However, for complicated flow domains, where multiple wells are required, the determination of the pumping rates necessary to achieve a specific plume manipulation objective is nontrivial. A relatively simple and flexible methodology is presented for initial screening estimation of pumping rates that will achieve plume manipulation objectives. Plume manipulation objectives are formulated as unconstrained nonlinear minimization problems using penalty function methods. For solution, a nonlinear mathematical programming algorithm is loosely coupled to a finite difference simulator of the hydraulic response of the flow domain to pumping and a numerical integration routine for plume tracking.