Title  : Hydrocarbon Transport
Type   : Antarctic EAM
NSF Org: OD / OPP
Date   : December 04, 1991
File   : opp93039



                                       DIVISION OF POLAR PROGRAMS
                                        OFFICE OF THE ENVIRONMENT
                                                     202/357-7766
MEMORANDUM

   Date:  December 4, 1991

   From:  Environmental Officer, DPP

Subject:  Environmental Action Memorandum (Information Item -
            Study on Hydrocarbon Transport in Polar Soils)

     To:  Files (Environment - S.7)
                (Hazardous Wastes - S.7.1)


Petroleum products represent the most likely and most significant
potential contaminants in antarctic environments.  Spills of these
products from ships have impacted antarctic marine environments.
Storage, transport, and use of these products in line with
antarctic operations have the potential to contaminate antarctic
marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments.  Increasing
understanding of the transport, fate, and effects of these
potential contaminants is a goal of the U.S. Antarctic Program.

Recent investigations by Dr. Mark A. Tumeo (University of Alaska,
Fairbanks) are providing useful information on the nature of
hydrocarbon contaminant transport in polar groundwater and soils.
This Environmental Action Memorandum reports some of Dr. Tumeo's
findings presented at the 12th Annual Hazardous Materials Control
Research Conference.
=================================================================
                            ABSTRACT

              Hydrocarbon Contaminant Transport in
                   Systems At or Near Freezing

                   Mark A. Tumeo, Ph.D., P.E.
               Environmental Technology Laboratory
                      University of Alaska
                    Fairbanks, AK 99775-0660
                          907/474-6090

[Presented at the 12th Annual
 Hazardous Materials Control Research Conference
Washington Sheraton Hotel
Washington, DC
December 3-5, 1991]

Pollution of groundwater by hydrocarbon contaminants has recently
gained national attention as contamination is being discovered
across the country.  Many water supplies are contaminated with low
concentrations that are not easily detected.  However the presence
                               -2-


of hydrocarbons in groundwater, even in low concentrations, may
present a possible health hazard.  Little is known about the move-
ment of hydrocarbons in groundwater at or near freezing.  Wide
variations in soil and groundwater temperatures are common in the
Arctic and Antarctic and can be expected in artificial freezing
situations.  Under freezing or near--freezing conditions, tempera-
ture induced changes in fluid viscosity and the exclusion and
immobilization of hydrocarbon contaminants can have dramatic
impacts on field-scale transport.

This paper reports on research at the University of Alaska
Fairbanks to explore the fate of hydrocarbon contaminants in
groundwater at or near freezing.  The project addresses some of the
fundamental questions which surround the analysis and prediction of
hydrocarbon contamination movement in cold regions.  The informa-
tion gained through this research is applicable in cold regions
outside Alaska and the Arctic where groundwater systems may undergo
periodic freezing, and may also be of extreme importance in artifi-
cial freezing scenarios such as those currently being investigated
by the EPA as a method of contaminant containment.

Bench scale studies were conducted using a "constant-head
groundwater flow chamber" and natural soil.  Freezing fronts were
induced from the soil surface downward using cooled Freon circulat-
ed through 'freezer pads' placed on the surface of the soil.  Slug
inputs of various contaminants, including hydrocarbons, were intro-
duced to the system using a syringe and contaminant movement with
time monitored under freezing and non-freezing conditions.  Results
of the bench scale studies were used to further develop a computer
model (GWFREEZE) that incorporates the processes of temperature
induced changes in fluid viscosity, exclusion and immobilization
into a two-dimensional transport equation for saturated porous
media under steady flow conditions.  Details of the model have been
published previously in Groundwater (Zukowski and Tumeo, 1991, Vol.
29(1), pp 21-25).
=================================================================



                                Sidney Draggan


cc:  Environmental Engineer, DPP
     Environmentalist, ASA