Pollutant transport in a shallow unconfined aquifer in Perry, Ohio

J. Mark Inglis, Gerald Matisoff, Walton Ross Kelly

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The groundwater system in northern Perry Township in Lake County, Ohio, is a shallow, unconfined aquifer consisting of periglacial lake beach deposits and less permeable lacustrine plain deposits. Groundwater flow is generally toward Lake Erie from south to north and is controlled by the top of the Ashtabula Till, but strong, local variations are caused by northward flowing streams During the study period, water levels in most wells exhibited a seasonal fluctuation of less than 0 3 m from their mean values. The areal distributions of chloride and nitrate concentrations indicate that road salt runoff easily infiltrates the aquifer and that nitrate may be sourced from fertilizer application. Ground-water flow and solute transport models indicate that in excess of 27 years are required to obtain chemical steady-state under hydrologic steady-state conditions. The simulations also demonstrate that nitrate loading must occur in more than one cultivated field in order to obtain the observed wide-spread nitrate distribution.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)237-245
Number of pages9
JournalEnvironmental Geology and Water Sciences
Volume8
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1986
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Chemistry
  • Water Science and Technology
  • Environmental Science(all)
  • Engineering(all)
  • Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)
  • Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)

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