Sewage-Contaminated Ground Water -- Cape Cod, Massachusetts
![Shortly following the installation of a permeable reactive barrier, the sediment along the shoreline of Ashumet Pond, Cape Cod, MA, turned red, indicating the oxidation of the iron filings in the barrier. The barrier was constructed to remediate a phosphate plume discharging to the pond](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090814053800im_/http://toxics.usgs.gov/photo_gallery/photos/capecod/cc_ppr_RedShore_s.jpg) Shortly following the installation of a permeable reactive barrier, the sediment along the shoreline of Ashumet Pond, Cape Cod, MA, turned red, indicating the oxidation of the iron filings in the barrier. The barrier was constructed to remediate a phosphate plume discharging to the pond
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Community waters are treated and disposed either to surface waters or ground water. These wastewaters include water from both domestic and industrial/commercial uses. Domestic wastewater includes chemicals that are typically used in and discharged from the household. The wastewaters from industrial, commercial, institutional, and similar facilities can have a varied chemical character. Even after treatment, wastewater discharges can contain a wide range of organic chemicals, and inorganic chemicals including metals and nutrients. The complex mixture of contaminants in wastewater effluent provides an opportunity to study a myriad of chemical and microbial reactions in the subsurface.
The Toxics Program is investigating a wastewater plume in a shallow sand and gravel aquifer near Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The ground-water plume is about 2.5 miles long, and contains chlorinated hydrocarbons, detergents, metals, nitrate, and microbes. Detailed sampling of the plume and large-scale tracer experiments have provided an opportunity to demonstrate a fundamental approach for characterizing the heterogeneous nature of subsurface contaminant plumes. The data also are being used to develop models that enable scientists to design monitoring strategies, to predict how contaminants spread in the subsurface and to estimate how quickly contaminants in sewage degrade to less toxic compounds. These methods are being used at other contaminated sites nationwide.
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Upcoming Publications
- Monitoring the removal of phosphate from ground water discharging through a pond-bottom permeable reactive: McCobb, T.D., LeBlanc, D.R., and Massey, A.J., Ground Water Monitoring and Remediation (IN PRESS).
- Use of inverse modeling methods to improve ground-water-modeling calibration and evaluate model-prediction uncertainty, Camp Edwards, Cape Cod, Massachusetts: Walter, D.A., and LeBlanc, D.R., U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2007-5257 (IN PRESS).
Newly Published
- Microbial characterization of nitrification in a shallow, nitrogen-contaminated aquifer, Cape Cod, Massachusetts and detection of a novel cluster associated with nitrifying Betaproteobacteria: Miller, D.N., and Smith, R.L., 2009, Journal of Contaminant Hydrology, v. 103, no. 3-4, p. 182-193, doi:10.1016/j.jconhyd.2008.10.011.
- Use of inverse modeling methods to improve ground-water-modeling calibration and evaluate model-prediction uncertainty, Camp Edwards, Cape Cod, Massachusetts: Walter, D.A., and LeBlanc, D.R., 2008, U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2007-5257.
- Prevalence of tumors in brown bullhead from three lakes in southeastern Massachusetts, 2002: Baumann, P.C., LeBlanc, D.R., Blazer, V.S., Meier, J.R., Hurley, S.T., and Kiryu, Y., 2008, U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2008-5198.
- Fate of consumer-product chemicals in the subsurface environment--25 years of research on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA: Barber, L.B., 2008, in Trefry, M.G., ed., Groundwater Quality 2007--Securing Groundwater Quality in Urban and Industrial Environments: International Association of Hydrological Sciences IAHS Redbook, IAHS Publ. 324, p. 126-132.
- Subsurface fate and transport of sulfamethoxazole, 4-nonylphenol, and 17Β-estradiol: Barber, L.B., Meyer, M.T., LeBlanc, D.R., Kolpin, D.W., Bradley, P.M., Chapelle, F.H., and Rubio, F., 2008, in Trefry, M.G., ed., Groundwater Quality 2007--Securing Groundwater Quality in Urban and Industrial Environments: International Association of Hydrological Sciences IAHS Redbook, IAHS Publ. 324, p. 133-139.
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