GROUNDWATER MODELS

Applied contaminant transport modelling (2nd ed)

by  Dr Colin Smith

Applied contaminant transport modelling (2nd ed)
Chunmiao Zheng and Gordon Bennett
Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 2002

Pages 621, GB£70.50
ISBN 0 471 38477 1

In the UK, about 50% of the drinking water comes from two aquifers: the chalk and the Sherwood sandstone; and many of our chemicals industries are located on them. The chalk runs from Brighton up through Dartford and Cambridge, to Hull and beyond, while the Sherwood sandstone runs through Birmingham and Wolverhampton, then West and East of the Pennines through Ellesmere Port, Liverpool, Manchester, Warrington and Teesside.

Many people think the world is awash with underground rivers and lakes, and that water in wells comes from one or other of these. While a nice image, it is an old diviner?s tale as a visit to the seaside will show. When the tide goes out watch the water emerge from the sand and pebbles. As an analogy, groundwater flow and transport could be similar to chromatography ? both involving the movement of solvents and separation of solutes. It is a matter of scale.

There is groundwater beneath reactors, tank farms and effluent pits of the chemicals industry. It flows on to feed our taps, irrigate crops and maintain rivers during summer months. Groundwater protection is important. Perhaps someone reading this has a twinge of conscience about a pool of product in a quiet corner of the works. If so, Applied contaminant transport modelling could be the book for you (or at least for a chromatographer). Chunmiao Zheng and Gordon Bennett have produced a work that is true to its title. It is about contaminant transport modelling ? nothing more nor less. Importantly, it is not about hydrogeology (the study of groundwater) and the tyro would be struggling, as the book assumes a reasonable level of background knowledge and some experience of flow modelling. Each chapter starts gently by telling readers in English what they are about to read in mathematics ? for additional information there are fifty odd pages of references.

The whole book is fascinating and I read it from cover to cover, but the middle section is perhaps most useful for someone building a first transport model. In essence, it is a step-by-step guide to building, calibrating and using a model ? anyone familiar with flow modelling should have no trouble in doing so.

The book may not be bedtime reading but could be of value to the non-expert. In particular, one who has a groundwater contamination issue and has commissioned an investigation, or a model, and wants to know why it is necessary to drill and test all those extra boreholes and samples. It comes with plenty of examples ? so readers need not feel alone if they have a problem. One that made my eyes pop was the Massachusetts Military Reservation in Cape Cod, where the estimated clean up costs exceed $800m with groundwater remediation costs of $300m. As would be expected, the models were state of the art. Hopefully, the UK does not have a direct analogy to that, but if the twinge of conscience has deepened, potential readers could do worse than ordering a copy of Zheng and Bennett ? and get a 50% discount as an SCI member.

Dr Colin Smith is a freelance hydrogeologist working in groundwater contamination and water supply, based in the UK.

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