Stochastic Assessment of Groundwater Contamination Risks From Onshore Gas Development Using Computationally Efficient Analytical and Numerical Transport Models
Regulators require the gas industry to assess the risks of unintentional release of chemicals to the environment and implement measures to mitigate it. Industry standard models for contaminant transport in aquifers do not explicitly model processes in the unsaturated zone and groundwater models ofte...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Water |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frwa.2021.799738/full |
| _version_ | 1818942942443732992 |
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| author | David Rassam J. Sreekanth Dirk Mallants Dennis Gonzalez Rebecca Doble Trevor Pickett |
| author_facet | David Rassam J. Sreekanth Dirk Mallants Dennis Gonzalez Rebecca Doble Trevor Pickett |
| author_sort | David Rassam |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Regulators require the gas industry to assess the risks of unintentional release of chemicals to the environment and implement measures to mitigate it. Industry standard models for contaminant transport in aquifers do not explicitly model processes in the unsaturated zone and groundwater models often require long run times to complete simulation of complex processes. We propose a stochastic numerical-analytical hybrid model to overcome these two shortcomings and demonstrate its application to assess the risks associated with onshore gas drilling in the Otway Basin, South Australia. The novel approach couples HYDRUS-1D to an analytical solution to model contaminant transport in the aquifer. Groundwater velocities and chemical trajectories were derived from a particle tracking analysis. The most influential parameters controlling solute delivery to the aquifer were the soil chemical degradation constant and the hydraulic conductivity of a throttle soil horizon. Only 18% of the flow paths intercepted environmental receptors within a 1-km radius from the source, 87% of which had concentrations of <1% of the source. The proposed methodology assesses the risk to environmental assets and informs regulators to implement measures that mitigate risk down to an acceptable level. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T07:19:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a754a8fdb24247148cc60af3b8d7f35a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2624-9375 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T07:19:27Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Water |
| spelling | doaj.art-a754a8fdb24247148cc60af3b8d7f35a2022-12-21T19:48:43ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Water2624-93752022-01-01310.3389/frwa.2021.799738799738Stochastic Assessment of Groundwater Contamination Risks From Onshore Gas Development Using Computationally Efficient Analytical and Numerical Transport ModelsDavid Rassam0J. Sreekanth1Dirk Mallants2Dennis Gonzalez3Rebecca Doble4Trevor Pickett5Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Land and Water, Dutton Park, QLD, AustraliaCommonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Land and Water, Dutton Park, QLD, AustraliaCommonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Land and Water, Urrbrae, SA, AustraliaCommonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Land and Water, Urrbrae, SA, AustraliaCommonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Land and Water, Urrbrae, SA, AustraliaCommonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Land and Water, Dutton Park, QLD, AustraliaRegulators require the gas industry to assess the risks of unintentional release of chemicals to the environment and implement measures to mitigate it. Industry standard models for contaminant transport in aquifers do not explicitly model processes in the unsaturated zone and groundwater models often require long run times to complete simulation of complex processes. We propose a stochastic numerical-analytical hybrid model to overcome these two shortcomings and demonstrate its application to assess the risks associated with onshore gas drilling in the Otway Basin, South Australia. The novel approach couples HYDRUS-1D to an analytical solution to model contaminant transport in the aquifer. Groundwater velocities and chemical trajectories were derived from a particle tracking analysis. The most influential parameters controlling solute delivery to the aquifer were the soil chemical degradation constant and the hydraulic conductivity of a throttle soil horizon. Only 18% of the flow paths intercepted environmental receptors within a 1-km radius from the source, 87% of which had concentrations of <1% of the source. The proposed methodology assesses the risk to environmental assets and informs regulators to implement measures that mitigate risk down to an acceptable level.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frwa.2021.799738/fullrisk assessmentcontaminant transportvadose zone modellingpythonMODFLOWMT3D |
| spellingShingle | David Rassam J. Sreekanth Dirk Mallants Dennis Gonzalez Rebecca Doble Trevor Pickett Stochastic Assessment of Groundwater Contamination Risks From Onshore Gas Development Using Computationally Efficient Analytical and Numerical Transport Models Frontiers in Water risk assessment contaminant transport vadose zone modelling python MODFLOW MT3D |
| title | Stochastic Assessment of Groundwater Contamination Risks From Onshore Gas Development Using Computationally Efficient Analytical and Numerical Transport Models |
| title_full | Stochastic Assessment of Groundwater Contamination Risks From Onshore Gas Development Using Computationally Efficient Analytical and Numerical Transport Models |
| title_fullStr | Stochastic Assessment of Groundwater Contamination Risks From Onshore Gas Development Using Computationally Efficient Analytical and Numerical Transport Models |
| title_full_unstemmed | Stochastic Assessment of Groundwater Contamination Risks From Onshore Gas Development Using Computationally Efficient Analytical and Numerical Transport Models |
| title_short | Stochastic Assessment of Groundwater Contamination Risks From Onshore Gas Development Using Computationally Efficient Analytical and Numerical Transport Models |
| title_sort | stochastic assessment of groundwater contamination risks from onshore gas development using computationally efficient analytical and numerical transport models |
| topic | risk assessment contaminant transport vadose zone modelling python MODFLOW MT3D |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frwa.2021.799738/full |
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