A National Roadmap for Vadose Zone Science & Technology
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DOE/ID-10871 A National Roadmap for Vadose Zone Science & Technology Understanding, Monitoring, and Predicting Contaminant Fate and Transport in the Unsaturated Zone Revision 0.0 August 2001 A National Roadmap for Vadose Zone Science and Technology PREFACE The project management and logistical aspects of initiating a first national roadmap for vadose zone science and technology are daunting. The initial challenge was to select and assemble a team of experts who could identify the research and development needed over the next quarter century to adequately assess and predict the fate and transport of contaminants in the vadose zone. The second challenge was to ensure that the group was well-versed in U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) needs, the vadose zone cleanup efforts of other federal agencies, and the research underway in universities, the private sector, and government facilities (including the DOE national laboratories). Third, the interests and requirements of federal, state and local governments had to be considered. After a lengthy search, 10 internationally recognized individuals were selected and accepted positions on the Vadose Zone Roadmap Executive Committee. Four of these individuals also accepted the challenge to serve as workgroup chairs and to assemble the remainder of the participants for the workgroups. The full team consisted of 62 individuals, many of whom are internationally recognized vadose zone experts. These individuals (a complete list is provided in Appendix A) also provided representation from across DOE, other federal agencies, industry, academia, and the international community. In March 2000, the Executive Committee met to begin its task. Over the next year, this committee and four (ultimately condensed to three) roadmap workgroups formed the multi- disciplinary team that has outlined in these pages a set of vadose zone research and infrastructure priorities for the next quarter-century. As a starting point for this group, personnel from the DOE national laboratories who are familiar with end user needs and vadose zone issues (including several key collaborators developing the compendium Vadose Zone Science and Technology Solutions) prepared a summary of current deficiencies and capability gaps, within the DOE complex, in vadose zone characterization, monitoring and modeling. The results of this effort were provided to the roadmap team. During the second half of the year, the scope of the roadmap was broadened from a focus on DOE problems and needs to a national perspective on vadose zone contamination as a threat to our invaluable groundwater resources. This roadmap is drawn in broad strokes. It no doubt leaves important research needs and opportunities uncharted. Nevertheless, it provides the first attempt at a national level to forge a path through what had been unmapped territory. If successful, the research described in this document will dramatically improve characterization, monitoring and modeling capabilities. These capabilities will provide a firmer scientific foundation upon which regulators and site managers can make confident decisions and predictions when dealing with contamination in the vadose zone. Additional work to refine, extend, and update this roadmap will require continued dialogue within the vadose zone research community, with other U.S. government and state and local agencies, and with affected stakeholders. – Clayton R. Nichols, Assistant Manager, Research and Development; U.S. Department of Energy, Idaho Operations Office Revision 0.0 A National Roadmap for Vadose Zone Science and Technology CONTENTS FOREWORD................................................................................................................................................ v EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................ vii 1.0 INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 THE NEED FOR A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE VADOSE ZONE............................................. 1 1.2 A BROAD NATIONAL ISSUE; A DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY MISSION ............................................. 2 1.3 THE NEED FOR A VADOSE ZONE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP .................................... 4 1.4 A VISION FOR 2025...................................................................................................................... 9 1.5 THE CONTEXT OF PREVIOUS VADOSE ZONE WORK ................................................................... 10 2.0 PHYSICAL, CHEMICAL, AND BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF VADOSE ZONE FLOW AND TRANSPORT ..................................................................................................................... 14 2.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF A GHCB FRAMEWORK............................................................................. 15 2.2 PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF FLOW AND TRANSPORT PROCESSES................................................ 16 2.3 CHEMICAL PROPERTIES AND PROCESSES ................................................................................... 27 2.4 BIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES AND PROCESSES................................................................................. 32 2.5 COLLOIDAL FORMATION AND TRANSPORT ................................................................................ 38 2.6 MULTIPHASE FLOW AND TRANSPORT ........................................................................................ 40 2.7 UNSTABLE PROCESSES............................................................................................................... 42 3.0 COMBINING THE BASICS TO UNDERSTAND, MEASURE, MONITOR AND MODEL VADOSE ZONE SYSTEMS ....................................................................................................... 45 3.1 COUPLING BASIC PROPERTIES AND PROCESSES ......................................................................... 45 3.2 COMBINING PROCESSES AND DATA AT DIFFERENT SCALES IN INTEGRATED MODELS ............... 49 3.3 ESTIMATION AND REDUCTION OF UNCERTAINTY....................................................................... 52 3.4 IMPROVING SITE MONITORING SYSTEMS ................................................................................... 56 3.5 MODEL INTEGRATION AND VALIDATION AT THE SYSTEM LEVEL. ............................................. 61 4.0 NECESSARY SUPPORTING CAPABILITIES AND INFRASTRUCTURE ....................... 66 4.1 GENERATING AND COMPILING THE DATA FOR A FOUR-DIMENSIONAL GHCB FRAMEWORK ..... 66 4.2 FIELD FACILITIES TO SUPPORT INTEGRATED TESTING AND VALIDATION OF RESEARCH............ 73 4.3 COMPUTATIONAL RESOURCES TO DEVELOP ADEQUATE MODELS AND SIMULATION CAPABILITIES ............................................................................................................................. 78 5.0 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ..................................................................... 88 5.1 THE BOTTOM LINE: HIGHLIGHTS OF EXPECTED RESULTS FROM ROADMAP ACTIVITIES............ 88 5.2 LINKAGES AMONG RESEARCH AND INFRASTRUCTURE ACTIVITIES............................................ 95 5.3 VADOSE ZONE RESEARCH IN THE CONTEXT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANUP AND STEWARDSHIP IMPERATIVES ............................................................................................................................. 96 5.4 INTERAGENCY AND INTERGOVERNMENTAL COORDINATION IS CRITICAL .................................. 98 5.5 THE ULTIMATE DRIVER: PROTECTING THE NATION’S GROUNDWATER RESOURCE ................... 99 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS........................................................................................................................ 101 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................................... 102 ACRONYM LIST..................................................................................................................................... 104 APPENDIX A. ROADMAP CONTRIBUTORS................................................................................... 105 APPENDIX B. TABLE OF ROADMAP ACTIVITIES WITH TASKS AND STATUS POINTS... 106 APPENDIX C. FULL TEXT OF RESEARCH GOALS AS GENERATED BY ROADMAP WORKGROUPS ...................................................................................................................................... 130 Revision 0.0 iii A National Roadmap for Vadose Zone Science and Technology FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1 Stewardship Activities Increase as Cleanup is Completed.............................................................. 6 Table 1 Highlights of Results for Physical Description of Flow & Transport Research Activities............. 27 Table 2 Highlights of Results for Chemical Properties & Processes Research Activities........................... 32 Table 3 Highlights of Results for Biological Properties & Processes Research Activities ......................... 38 Table 4 Highlights of Results for Colloidal Formation & Transport Research Activities........................... 40 Table 5 Highlights of Results for Multiphase Flow & Transport Research Activities............................... 42 Table 6 Highlights of Results for Unstable Processes Research Activities................................................. 44 Table 7 Highlights of Results for Understanding and Modeling Coupled Systems Research Activities ... 49 Table 8 Highlights of Results for Combining Processes & Data at Different