Project Number:
DNR-100
Other Project Number:
WR92R009
Funding Year:
1992
Contract Period:
Funding Source:
DNR
Investigator(s) and affiliations:
Michael F. Bohn, Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey;
Frederick William Madison, Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey
Abstract:
Abstract: Groundwater susceptibility assessment systems rate land areas by their relative potential for groundwater contamination based on hydrogeologic or physical factors that affect groundwater flow and/or contaminant attenuation. Assessment system results are being used in policy analysis and development, in program management, in making land-use decisions, and in providing general education about hydrogeologic resources. Although agencies are using or promoting the results of different types of groundwater susceptibility assessment systems, very little research has been done to test the results of these systems.
System validation can be difficult because there is a general lack of widespread groundwater monitoring data. Even so, system susceptibility scores are frequently compared to contaminant concentrations in wells. However, assessment systems generally determine only the susceptibility of the water table to contamination and may not account for groundwater flow, saturated subsurface, or well conditions that could affect contaminant concentrations in wells. Therefore, comparison of system results to contaminant concentrations in drinking-water wells (after accounting for land-use practices) will not validate the system, but this comparison will evaluate a system’s ability to assess the contamination of drinking-water wells.