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TK Consult AG
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Contaminated aquifers

Contaminated aquifers

Ground water is a valuable resource often used for industry, commerce, agriculture, and most importantly drinking water. The good quality of groundwater is crucial for water-dependent plants and animals, and for the use of groundwater as a source of drinking water. Nitrate, pesticides, solvents and other pollutants can get into groundwater from surface water and soils. If they do so, current laws in many countries force the "polluter" to apply correction measures. But first, the "polluter" (or the pollution source) must be identified. Numerical models are ideal tools to both purposes, i.e., source identification and design of a remediation system. TK Consult AG develops conceptual and numerical models based upon available information that allow (1) to identify pollution sources or (2) to forecast the pollution caused by anthropic activities and (3) to design aquifer remediation systems to bring groundwater quality to a state close to the initial, unpolluted one.

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Our services included, but are not limited to:

Contaminant transport models:
Besides the classification of models according to model dimensionality, time regime or flow conditions, contaminant transport models can be classified according to the species and components being modelled (e.g., dissolved liquid and gas species, colloids, etc.). The contaminants may react between them or with the soil minerals and, of course, with groundwater. In addition, contaminants move within the aquifers because they are carried by groundwater, amongst other reasons. A simple case is the contamination caused by nitrates and phosphates contained in fertilizers and pesticides, which often plays an important role in aquifers in agricultural areas.

Aquifer restoration:
Groundwater must be used in a responsible and sustainable manner. Aquifers are sometimes contaminated due to human activities. Still, restoration techniques can be applied to try and return the aquifer to its natural state. Numerical models are ideally suited for the selection of the most appropriate decontamination strategy.

Groundwater quality:
Groundwater is often used for human supply. To that end, groundwater must meet a number of conditions with regards to human health. First, pumping wells must have a delineated protection area. Second, a forecast of the effect of pumping on groundwater quality must be carried out to ensure that the quality of groundwater will persist over time. Numerical models allow us to design the pumping wells and the corresponding extraction rates in an optimum manner.

Deep geological storage (DGS):
Targeting locations for the deep geological storage of radioactive waste is one of the priorities of policy-makers nowadays. Optimum locations are low permeability formations. TK Consult actively cooperates with the Swiss National Technical Competence Centre on the characterization of such bedrock systems and on the site selection of the Swiss nuclear waste deep geological storage.