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Hellerich et al. 2003
Hellerich, L.A., Oates, P.M., Johnson, C.R., Nikolaidis, N.P., Harvey, C.F. and Gschwend, P.M. (2003). Bromide transport before, during, and after colloid mobilization in push-pull tests and the implications for changes in aquifer properties. Water Resources Research 39: doi: 10.1029/2003WR002112. issn: 0043-1397.

Bromide breakthrough curves from push-pull tests were obtained at two wells before, during, and after citrate injections to assess how citrate-induced colloid mobilization affected physical aquifer transport properties. Tailing and incomplete bromide recoveries (67--95%) could not be fit with a conservative advection/dispersion model, and the results of batch tests using aquifer solids implied bromide was not significantly sorbing. Thus we modeled the bromide returns considering advection, dispersion, and rate-limited diffusive mass transfer between mobile and immobile regions by fitting αr, the radial dispersivity; α, the rate-limited mass transfer coefficient; and ¿, the volumetric ratio of immobile-to-mobile domains. Statistical t-tests indicated that the changes in aquifer transport parameters at a well where colloid mobilization was limited were not significant at a 95% percent confidence level. However, the substantial colloid mobilization at a second well corresponded to significantly decreased αr and ¿, while increasing α between premobilization and both mobilization and postmobilization. The changes in aquifer parameters and their correlation to the recovered colloidal mass are consistent with the idea that pore-clogging colloids were mobilized and/or reorganized during citrate injections. The results suggest that flushing a site under the right conditions with citrate could open up immobile regions and substantially reduce remediation time and costs by liberating contaminants whose transport would otherwise be diffusion limited.

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Keywords
Hydrology, Anthropogenic effects, Hydrology, Groundwater quality, Hydrology, Groundwater transport, Hydrology, Instruments and techniques
Journal
Water Resources Research
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American Geophysical Union
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