Theis Conference: Alphabetical Content Listing
Session 1: Technology Transfer
City of Phoenix's Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) Well Program: From Concept To Operations
Gary M. Gin, RG
The capacity of Phoenix’s groundwater supply infrastructure has declined due to the disconnection and/or abandonment of wells related to water quality issues and aging equipment. Currently, the City’s well system has capacity to meet 5 to 10 percent of peak day demand. The City has identified the need to rebuild and enhance its well system to provide drought redundancy, operating flexibility, emergency capacity; and to manage the variable nature of its surface water supplies. It is anticipated that the short-term groundwater needs for operating flexibility and system emergencies are more compelling than the longer term needs to offset drought and climate change impacts. The City’s objectives are to expand well capacity to meet 15-20% water demands, manage its aquifers to ensure the future availability of good quality groundwater, and to reduce the risks of land subsidence and other adverse environmental impacts. To meet these objectives, the City is developing an ASR well program. Phoenix has identified three critical elements to define sustainability for its ASR well system; 1) cost-effective and efficient, 2) operator and manager friendly; and 3) commitment from all levels of the Water Services department to successfully implement this program. To meet these objectives, we had to demonstrate economic benefits to upper management and concurrently time train/educate operators on how an ASR well system works within the existing potable distribution system. Through the course of design and construction of the first ASR well system, we realized that innovative technology would provide the necessary success from both an economic and operations perspective. Sophisticated programming logic control at the ASR well allowed us to accomplish the following:
- Simplify the operator functions and data collection;
- Successfully unclog the well with the permanent pump after successive recharge seasons;
- Reduce labor force in operating the well system; and
- Access real-time performance data so that decisions can be made quickly.
Evolution of Vertical Profile Sampling and Measurement Methods for Contaminant Plume Characterization and Conceptual Modelling
Beth L. Parker, Ph.D.
As far back as the 1950’s, there is sScientific literature extending back to the 1950’s that shows contaminant plumes in sandy aquifers delineated using various methods for obtaining hydrogeology and hydrochemistry data with depth,,, or what we termed ‘vertical profiling ’ data profiles. These studies have been essential for informing our professional judgment regarding the characteristics of groundwater plumes and the identification and importance of relevant physical, chemical and mircrobiologicalmicrobiological processes influencing their behavior. Over the past decades, the science and practice of high resolution vertical profiling has been evolveding evolvedas with the development of new and varied tools are are developed with improved resolution and measurement methods that addressforcapable of addressing different contaminant types and hydrogeologic environments. . Although vertical profiling techniques were adopted early in contaminant hydrogeologyused early in the development of the contaminant hydrogeology profession, the collectionuse of these data sets to refine process-based site conceptual models (SCMs) is substantially underutilized. This is the case even though continuous innovation has created versatility, reliability and cost savings. It is hypothesized that regulations and standardization of methods for compliance monitoring has short-circuited the importance of site characterization, , a distinct and important objective of the work that hinders progress toward development of informed SCMs, remediation system designs, performance evaluations and risk assessments. . Although more awareness exists amongst the groundwater industry professionals, there remain hurdles to in modifying industry practice remain due to perceived costs, lack of experience and regulatory agency inflexibility. This isese hurdles are causing a substantialignificant gap between methods applied in standard practice and lag state of the science methods available for collection of apropriately-scaled, site- specific data, appropriately scaled, both in time and space, data. between state of the science and practice to gather appropriately scaled data, both in time and space, specific to the site conditions. A review of the science and how this has advanced most recently for contaminated sites in fractured sedimentary rock, an environment lacking rigorous field based research and method development until the past two decades, will be presented. These fractured rock systems are important water supply aquifers and susceptible to contamination inputs, both from both above and from below, given societal needs for energy and waste disposal.
Moving Ideas into Practice
Mary O'Reilly, Ph.D.
Session 2: Groundwater Monitoring
Keynote: Innovation and Environmental Ground Water Monitoring in Defense of Laziness
Kent Cordry
The presentation will describe the lessons learned from the author’s 25 years of experience in inventing and introducing new technologies used for environmental ground water monitoring. It will examine the changes from the invention and introduction of the first patented product in the late 1980’s, to the latest product, introduced in the early 2000’s, which is still increasing in use and acceptance.
Also addressed will be the considerable creative and economic challenges from the private technology developer’s perspective. Topics will include; where the ideas come from, the value of laziness, the creative process in general, linear versus shotgun thinking, facing the “what have I done?” moments, and the financial implications the inventor faces.
Reasons for the slow pace of change and acceptance of new ideas in the environmental sampling market will also be discussed. Including why does the market exist at all? What incentive is there for people to change? Everyone has an agenda. What factors seem to accelerate innovative technology acceptance the most?
Finally, the sobering odds of a new technology actually making it to the marketplace, being accepted and also being economically viable will be addressed.
Session 2: Groundwater Monitoring (cont.)
Beyond the Wellbore Profile: Understanding Subsurface Deposits with Tomographic Data
Michael Cardiff, Ph.D.
One of the most common methods for obtaining estimates of 3-D aquifer structures is through interpolation of (1-D) wellbore profiles of hydrologic, visual, or geophysical properties. The ease of data collection, the ability to use relatively simple data analysis methods, and the intuitive nature by which these interpretations are mapped into 3-D aquifer volumes (interpolation) make wellbore profiling methods very attractive. Tomographic methods for aquifer characterization represent an entirely different approach to the aquifer characterization problem. In tomographic methods, an aquifer is stimulated at a particular location (the source, which can be hydrologic, chemical, or geophysical in nature), and response data is recorded at a number of different observation locations (the receivers). Because tomographic data is sensitive to aquifer parameters over a larger support volume, it can be more valuable for obtaining information about connectivity of geologic features, which is important for contaminant transport and other applications. However, key investments must be made to collect useful tomographic data. A large set of instrumentation may be needed to collect data at numerous receiver locations. And likewise, the computational demand required to analyze tomographic data for aquifer imaging is generally much higher than for profiling analyses.
In this presentation, I review several key advancements that are helping to move tomographic techniques toward more widespread application. In particular, I will review instrumentation, test design, and computational advancements that are helping to improve the value proposition of hydraulic tomography – a tomographic method that uses data from pumping interference tests to infer 3-D heterogeneity throughout an aquifer. I will also demonstrate, through synthetic applications, how tomographic methods can extract detailed heterogeneity information beyond what could be obtained with simple wellbore profile interpolation. As hydrogeology moves into the 21st century, tomographic methods represent a key way in which we as a community can take better advantage of the new opportunities presented by rapidly increasing sensing and computational capabilities. Finally, to encouraging further advancement of the field, I will discuss the important role of industry collaborations and support for method development and standardization.
In this presentation, I review several key advancements that are helping to move tomographic techniques toward more widespread application. In particular, I will review instrumentation, test design, and computational advancements that are helping to improve the value proposition of hydraulic tomography – a tomographic method that uses data from pumping interference tests to infer 3-D heterogeneity throughout an aquifer. I will also demonstrate, through synthetic applications, how tomographic methods can extract detailed heterogeneity information beyond what could be obtained with simple wellbore profile interpolation. As hydrogeology moves into the 21st century, tomographic methods represent a key way in which we as a community can take better advantage of the new opportunities presented by rapidly increasing sensing and computational capabilities. Finally, to encouraging further advancement of the field, I will discuss the important role of industry collaborations and support for method development and standardization.
Tracer Based Flow Surveys In Monitoring Wells To Determine Best Sampling Approach; Low Flow or Passive Grab Sampling
Noah Heller
Since the advent of Superfund in 1981 the environmental industry has been in a lengthy debate over use of various sampling methods from environmental monitoring wells. Purging and sampling paradigms can be divided into three main camps; 1) three to five wet casing volume purges prior to sampling, 2) low flow purging prior to sampling and 3) no purging prior to sampling.
This presentation focuses on measurement results of flow under both low flow purging and ambient (non pumping) conditions using in-well tracers with an up-hole fluorometer and down-hole laser system, respectively. In the two conditions studied, the results show that under low flow purging and sampling much of the monitoring well screen is hydraulically engaged - even with minimal drawdown inside of a monitoring well. Flow measurements under ambient conditions using a down-hole laser demonstrate that slow but detectable vertical movements inside monitoring wells are present; shedding light on some limitations of no-purge sampling systems in terms providing meaningful concentration results from monitoring wells.
The concentration results themselves of scientific value have considerable economic value when translated into cost for groundwater aquifer restoration. The extraction ratio (gallons of water removed for each gallon or lb. of contaminant removed from the groundwater) is a key concern to those organizations paying for clean up. There are inherent problems with both low flow purging and sampling and no purge sampling in terms of deriving how much contaminant mass is actually present in groundwater. The results of these studies conclude that without a proper, basic understanding of flow dynamics inside monitoring wells with either of these practices, groundwater hydrogeologists and remediation engineers alike are at risk of significant errors in contaminant mass estimates for groundwater cleanup.
Use of Exports to Accelerate Adoption of NMR Geophysical Technology
David Walsh, Ph.D.
Since 2002, Vista Clara Inc. has focused on developing and commercializing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) geophysical instruments for groundwater investigations. When we started on this endeavor, we assumed that the US groundwater and environmental services industries would be eager to embrace new NMR geophysical technologies and our sales would be principally in the US domestic market. This assumption has proven incorrect. Instead export sales, in our case especially to Australia and China, have outpaced our sales in the US. We are increasingly finding influential early adopters of our technologies overseas. In essence, exports have become the basis for our growth in both revenues and profits. In this discussion, we review our company’s growth in both domestic and export sales over the past 5 years, and examine key structural differences between the US and international markets for groundwater management and remediation technologies, that may help explain the relative ease of selling new groundwater and remediation technologies overseas.
Session 3: Groundwater Modeling
Linking a MODFLOW Groundwater Flow Model with an Urban Water Policy and Management Model
David A. Sampson
City level water policy and management decisions in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area, like most metropolitan cities, are based on water supply and demand projections. Provider-specific complexity and uncertainty in the dynamics of supply and demand for many communities requires the use of decision support systems to help water resource managers make educated decisions about water management. Water managers often use a groundwater flow model, such as MODFLOW, to evaluate the natural performance of their aquifers under various constrained scenarios within the context of the legal rights granted by either a provider designation or a certificate of groundwater assurance. Often, hydrological consultants are engaged to develop pumping and recharge scenarios, but months or years may pass before scenarios are complete and results are available for evaluation of alternative growth and management options. To date, these analyses are burdened by the typical, methodological challenges associated with standard MODFLOW simulations (i.e., convergence issues in general, large pre-process data sets, post-processing logistics, etc.). The Decision Center for a Desert City has been developing a data management interface to link the Arizona Department of Water Resources’ Salt River Valley (SRV) groundwater flow model (SRV-GFM; based on MODFLOW 2005) to our urban water policy and management model, WaterSim 5. WaterSim 5 considers exogenous and endogenous effects of climate change, population growth, per capita water use, and governance (policy levers) within a water use network for 33 major water providers. Our C sharp wrapper combines libraries, a Fortran dll (from WaterSim 5), and the FORTRAN exe DOS box process to run the SRV-GFM. Using visualization tools (e.g., dot spatial), and an SQL database, we have a dynamic run-time data management and output display environment. The current SRV-GFM model uses MODFLOW-NWT to provide robust, efficient simulations and, when using the multi-node package, a pumping-rectified analysis for often depleted cells typical in the SRV. When completed, our framework will provide automated and dynamic georeferenced controls (for a 15,700 cell grid) over data management objectives for pumping and recharge definitions and scenarios, and control over run-time events that could nominally interrupt simulation convergence. This coupled model permits a solution space for advanced scenario planning and analyses in the pursuit of surface and groundwater anticipatory water governance.
Vertical Head and Hydraulic Gradient Profiles for Improved Flow System Conceptual and Numerical Modelling
Jessica R. Meyer, M.Sc.
Hydrogeologic (or hydrostratigraphic) units (HGUs) are foundational elements of conceptual and numerical models of groundwater flow and contaminant transport. Adequate representation of groundwater flow processes requires that HGUs be delineated on the basis of hydraulic information. However, in practice, delineation of HGUs is often based on data that is indirect with respect to hydraulic properties or blended hydraulic data. Fifteen detailed and depth discrete (i.e., high-resolution) Westbay® multilevel systems (MLSs) have been installed at contaminated, sedimentary rock field sites in Wisconsin, California, and Ontario and used to collect head profiles over multiyear periods. These MLSs were installed to maximum depths between 90 and 260 m and include an average of 3.3 monitoring zones per 10 m. Here we show that high resolution head profiles collected from fractured sedimentary rocks are highly repeatable, indicate the vertical position and thickness of hydraulic conductivity/connectivity contrasts, and provide insight into flow system conditions. In addition, the high resolution head profiles from the Wisconsin site were examined along cross-sections and used to identify laterally extensive contrasts in hydraulic conductivity/connectivity forming the basis for a HGU conceptual model for the site. Comparison to detailed core and geophysical data showed that these laterally extensive hydraulic conductivity/connectivity contrasts were strongly associated with important sequence stratigraphic units but not with lithostratigraphy, which is commonly relied on for positioning well screens. Work is in progress to represent this HGU conceptualization in a three-dimensional FEFLOW groundwater flow model. The high resolution head and vertical gradient field data will be used to validate the model to improve simulation of groundwater flow paths that will support separate transport modeling efforts. This study shows that the position and thickness of units with contrasting hydraulic conductivity/connectivity would not be evident if the density of monitoring zones in the MLSs had been that of conventional profiles.
Session 5: Groundwater Remediation
You’ve Developed a Revolutionary Environmental Technology! Now What?
Scott Wilson
The road to acceptance of a new technology is often long, winding, and expensive. Success is predicated upon a clear understanding of the market structure, influencers and channel partners. In this presentation the audience is walked through the key steps required in order to gain the acceptance of a new technology within the environmental market. The theoretical concepts presented are made tangible through the author’s telling of war stories and disclosing of battle scars.
Session 5: Groundwater Remediation (cont.)
Developing a Better Method Does Not Equal the World Beating a Path to Your Door
Carl Keller
The development process from the idea for flexible liner methods to full commercialization was fraught with technical, manufacturing, financial, marketing and staffing challenges. This presentation is a journey of how we got acceptance of various types of products from the scientific community and then how we negotiated the regulatory hurdles of states and foreign governments. Changes in staff and the abilities of personnel present unique challenges while resolving production circumstances in different states. You must cultivate the path into a highway with distinct mile markers.
New Product Development: The Journey from Bench-Scale Testing and Manufacturing into Practice
Ken Pisarczyk
The path that any new product idea follows from conceptualization, through validation and finally ends up in commercialization, will be a long and difficult journey filled with many pitfalls and sink holes. The development process begins with an idea for a product meets customer needs. The first phase of development begins with the laboratory preparation of the candidate product and submission of this product sample to a customer for evaluation. Based upon customer feedback, the laboratory procedure can be modified into one or more series of unit operations to be evaluated as part of the candidate manufacturing processes. At this stage the involvement and review by the manufacturing process operators, health and safety professionals, plant engineering and finance groups is of paramount importance.
Key elements of the process include:
- The rapid and constant interaction between the development group and the intended customer/market at each stage of the project.
- A development team composed of representatives from both the commercial and technical groups
- Concise dashboard illustrating project expectations, responsibilities, and progress
- Project accountability by the use of a simple return
This paper discusses the path of moving a new product from the laboratory to pilot-scale manufacturing and finally into real-world application. The technology concept involves use of slow-release chemical oxidants to treat chlorinated solvents and large dilute plumes of 1,4 dioxane. Permanganate or persulfate is embedded in a paraffin wax formulation and can be emplaced with direct push technology, existing monitoring wells, in permeable reactive barriers (PRBs), or hydraulically fractured into low permeability media. As part of the process of moving a new product from laboratory to practice engineering design tools are needed for successful technology implementation. To this end, a design tool is being developed for pracitioners to understand important site design parameters.
The Rich History of Commercialization of Laser-Induced Fluorescence
Randy W. St. Germain, M.S.
Laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) was fully developed, commercialized, and generating high quality high-resolution logs of non-aqueous phase liquid in 1994. Yet it took a full 15 years for the technology to achieve modest acceptance by the site cleanup community. The penthouse-to-basement-to middle class journey of the technology (and its inventors/advocates) contains valuable insights into how, and how not to, go about successfully commercializing effective but novel technologies in the environmental site remediation arena. The author (one of the original co-inventors of LIF) will present:
- A brief overview of the technology itself
- The inventors and their roles
- The licensing scenario that crippled LIF’s commercialization for 10 years
- The role of regulators
- The role of R&D and demonstration grants
- The difficulty in conclusively “validating” downhole technologies
- Marketing/Advocating proven but “exotic” new technologies
- New LIF tools destined to test the community once again