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Article
Soil gas transport above a jet fuel/solvent spill at Plattsburgh Air Force Base
Water Resources Research (2000)
  • Erich S Hinlein, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
  • David W Ostendorf
  • Alan J Lutenegger
  • Shawn P Kelley
Abstract

We calibrate a stoichiometrically coupled soil gas diffusion model with spatially resolved observations of oxygen, carbon dioxide, total hydrocarbon, and trichloroethylene vapor concentrations in the unsaturated zone above a weathered jet fuel/solvent spill at Plattsburgh Air Force Base in upstate New York. The calibration suggests that aerobic microorganisms in the capillary fringe degrade jet fuel vapor at a steady rate of 9.5 μg hydrocarbons (m−2 s−1). The solvent does not degrade in the fringe, however, and the model and data estimate a steady evaporation rate of 1.2×10−2 μg TCE (m−2 s−1). Barometric pumping slightly alters the steady concentration profile at Plattsburgh, although the transient advective flux is the same order of magnitude as the steady diffusive flux. We derive a simple perturbation theory for the second-order transient concentration corrections and include it in the calibration. The perturbation theory is valid at Plattsburgh because the soil is uniform and permeable with a relatively deep capillary fringe.

Publication Date
2000
Publisher Statement
Doi:10.1029/2000WR900128 “An edited version of this paper was published by AGU. Published 2000 American Geophysical Union.”
Citation Information
Erich S Hinlein, David W Ostendorf, Alan J Lutenegger and Shawn P Kelley. "Soil gas transport above a jet fuel/solvent spill at Plattsburgh Air Force Base" Water Resources Research Vol. 36 Iss. 9 (2000)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/alan_lutenegger/1/