Common Treatment Methods for Inorganics in Groundwater and Leachate
by
Sandra Horan, Erin Monahan, Pat Walsh
Introduction
Contamination of our nation's water supplies has become a major problem in the United States. In Virginia alone, groundwater supplies approximately 50% of the state's total water use. Common uses include residential wells, agriculture, public supply, and industrial supply. Groundwater can become contaminated with a variety of products, as shown in the table below.
Solid and hazardous waste landfills, septic tanks, agricultural activity, UST's, surface impoundments, and injection wells all serve a sources for these contaminants. The most common way that contaminates enter the groundwater system is through infiltration through the soil . As rainfall enters the soil it comes in contact with a variety of contaminants, dissolves them, and carries the contaminates into the groundwater as it infiltrates through the soil. Other common ways that groundwater becomes contaminated include recharge from surface water, interaquifer exchange, and direct migration from below ground sources such as underground storage tanks.
This web page was designed to address the problem of inorganic contamination. Specifically, it will discuss the common treatment methods used to treat inorganic contaminants found within landfill leachate and within groundwater.
Faculty Advisor: Naraine Persaud, npers@vt.edu
Copyright © 1998 Naraine Persaud
Last Modified: January 1, 1999
