Obtaining contaminant arrival distributions for steady flow in heterogeneous systems

The versatility of the new contaminant arrival distributions for determining environmental consequences of subsurface pollution problems is demonstrated through application to a field example involving land drainage in heterogeneous porous materials. Though the four phases of the hydrologic evaluations are complicated because of the material heterogeneity encountered in the field problem, the arrival distributions still effectively summarize the minimal amount of data required to determine the environmental implications. These arrival distributions yield a single graph or tabular set of data giving the consequences of the subsurface pollution problems. Accordingly, public control authorities would be well advised to request that the results of subsurface pollution investigations be provided in the form of arrival distributions and the resulting simpler summary curve or tabulation. Such an objective is most easily accomplished through compliance with the requirements for assuring a complete subsurface evaluation