RECOVERY, A Mathematical Model to Predict the Temporal Response of Surface Water to Contaminated Sediments.

Abstract

Abstract : RECOVERY is a PC-based screening-level model to assess the impact of contaminated bottom sediments on surface waters. The analysis is limited to organic contaminants with the assumption that the water column is well mixed. The contaminant is assumed to follow linear, reversible, equilibrium sorption and first-order decay kinetics. The physical representation of a system by RECOVERY consists of a well-mixed water column (i.e., zero- dimensional) underlain by a vertically stratified sediment column (i.e., one-dimensional). The sediment is well mixed horizontally, but segmented vertically into a well-mixed surface (active) layer and deep sediment. The deep sediment is segmented into contaminated and clean sediment regions. Pathways incorporated in the RECOVERY model, in addition to sorption and decay, are volatilization, burial, resuspension, settling, advection, and pore-water diffusion. RECOVERY is designed for interactive implementation via a personal computer. The program allows the user to rapidly generate and analyze recovery scenarios for contaminated sediments. The software includes graphical displays and is self-documented. A description of the model, a confumation application, and a user's guide are included in this report.