Ammonia Spill into an Aquifer: Pump and Treat Assessment

by Kimberly Hopp

Submitted : Spring 2009

At and Environmental Science Interdisciplinary Colloquium (ERIC Seminar) Peter Palmer, and Engineer and Senior Vice-President of Arcadis Corporation presented a problem and solution for an ammonia spill in Miami florida. The Source of the pollution was fixed and a pump and treat method was used to rid of the ammonia based on a simple graph trend depicting the inverse relationship of the amount of toxin being pumped out and the amount of toxin remaining in the aquifer (Palmer, 2009). Based on this simple trend two graphs were formulated to at 5% and 15% removal rates per year and natural degradation or filtration at 1% per year using MATLAB. The graphs were formed by knowledge from previous courses taken at the University of South florida and put into MATLAB. From the trends the mathematical equations are formulated. Since the cost for pump and treat can be fairly expensive and can take a long time to complete, a model is useful in calculating at what rate of removal is the best route. Based off of the results, in conclusion it is be more feasible to pump and treat at 15% removal each year for 15 years giving way to 7.3146% ammonia remaining in the aquifer; taking 40 additional years for the ammonia to natural degrade. If need be the pumping and treating of the ammonia can be limited to just 11 years at the permissible exposure level, but then it would take over 100 years for the ammonia to naturally degrade.

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