Evaluating the environmental consequences of groundwater contamination: 2. Obtaining location/arrival time and location/outflow quantity distributions for steady flow systems

Abstract

A steady two‐dimensional flow system is used to demonstrate the application of location/arrival time and location/outflow quantity curves in determining the environmental consequences of groundwater contamination. The subsurface geologic and hydrologie evaluations needed to obtain the arrival results involve a sequence of four phases: system identification, new potential determination, flow system kinematics, and contaminant transport analysis. Once these phases are completed, they are effectively summarized and easily used to evaluate environmental consequences through the arrival distributions.