Characterization of Hydrogeologic Environments and Background Groundwater Quality at Coal Combustion Management Facilities

Research is currently underway to characterize hydrogeologic environments and background groundwater quality at coal combustion product management facilities.  These data will be used to develop conceptual models for active and new facilities, and to provide background concentration ranges that can be expected based on the hydrogeologic environment.  This information can be used in nationwide applications, for example modeling of potential risk associated with current and future management of coal combustion products, or at individual facilities to compare site-specific data to expected ranges that are based on observed data at other sites in similar environments.  Preliminary work has shown that more than one-third of the CCP management facilities are situated in locations where the hydrogeologic environment is alluvial in nature.  Groundwater in alluvial hydrogeologic environments is sometimes reduced, and as a result, background concentration ranges for redox-sensitive constituents such as iron and manganese may be higher than in other environments.  Similar results for other hydrogeologic environments will be presented and described.