Groundwater and Contaminant Hydrology

Contaminant hydrology is the study of processes that affect both ground and surface water pollution. It draws on the principles of hydrology and chemistry. Contaminant hydrology and water quality research seeks to understand the role of soil properties and hydrologic processes on ground and surface water pollution and develop strategies to mitigate their impacts. Research is done at all scales varying from soil pore to basin scale and covers both traditional and emerging contaminants. Groundwater and contaminant hydrology studies include fate and transport of jet fuel leakages from oil depots, producing water injection in shallow wells from the oil and gas exploration field concession areas, veterinary pharmaceuticals from landapplied manure, pathogen losses from manure application, fate and transport of disposal wastes in unlined evaporation ponds from pharmaceutical industries, impacts of tile drainage on sediment and nutrient pollution on Rivers, sediment-turbidity relationships, water quality modeling, and TMDL and paired watershed studies.