A regional flux-based risk assessment approach for multiple contaminated sites on groundwater bodies

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconhyd.2011.07.001Get rights and content

Abstract

In the context of the Water Framework Directive (EP and CEU, 2000), management plans have to be set up to monitor and to maintain water quality in groundwater bodies in the EU. In heavily industrialized and urbanized areas, the cumulative effect of multiple contaminant sources is likely and has to be evaluated. In order to propose adequate measures, the calculated risk should be based on criteria reflecting the risk of groundwater quality deterioration, in a cumulative manner and at the scale of the entire groundwater body. An integrated GIS- and flux-based risk assessment approach for groundwater bodies is described, with a regional scale indicator for evaluating the quality status of the groundwater body. It is based on the SEQ-ESO currently used in the Walloon Region of Belgium which defines, for different water uses and for a detailed list of groundwater contaminants, a set of threshold values reflecting the levels of water quality and degradation with respect to each contaminant. The methodology is illustrated with first results at a regional scale on a groundwater body-scale application to a contaminated alluvial aquifer which has been classified to be at risk of not reaching a good quality status by 2015. These first results show that contaminants resulting from old industrial activities in that area are likely to contribute significantly to the degradation of groundwater quality. However, further investigations are required on the evaluation of the actual polluting pressures before any definitive conclusion be established.

Highlights

► We examine groundwater quality in industrialized–urbanized areas. ► The cumulative effect of polluted sites is a risk for groundwater quality. ► A regional indicator for groundwater quality is proposed. ► The method is based on GIS system and groundwater modeling software interaction. ► Synthetic example and real cases prove the method convenience for decision making.

Introduction

The EU Water Framework Directive (EP and CEU, 2000) requires management plans to monitor, to maintain and, if required, to restore the quality of surface water and groundwater bodies. In very urbanized and industrialized regions, water resources, and particularly groundwater, are subject to many pollution pressures related to different kinds of socio-economic activities and contaminants (United Nations for Environment Programme/Agency for the Environment and Energy Management, 2005, European Environment Agency EEA, 2006). These plans cannot be defined without considering industrial sites potentially harmful to groundwater resources and, in this context, different questions arise. How can we take into consideration all these potential and actual sources of pollution in evaluating the risk of deterioration of groundwater quality and the efficiency of programs of measures defined to restore this quality? And, as a consequence of this, how can we evaluate groundwater quality at the regional scale of the groundwater body and the evolution with time of groundwater quality?

Classical risk assessment and management concepts for contaminated sites are usually based on a univocal relationship between a source of pollution and a potentially exposed receptor, commonly referred to as the source–pathway–receptor approach, with an evaluation of the receptor's exposure level and a comparison to environmental and health regulations (e.g. Ferguson et al., 1998, Fairman et al., 1999). This conceptual approach is convenient for pollution sources and receptors well located in space, such as local pollution “hotspots” and pumping wells nearby. By contrast, in heavily industrialized and urbanized areas, because of the spatial extent of groundwater bodies, many point or diffuse pollution sources may need to be considered in the analysis, with complex groundwater vectors for contaminant dispersion, and a meaningful regional risk assessment approach has to be considered (Gay and Korre, 2006, Critto and Sutter, 2009).

Several projects have been dedicated recently to the development of methodologies for contaminated megasite management, such as CLARINET (2002), NICOLE (2003), WELCOME (2004), INCORE (Ptak et al., 2003, Jarsjo et al., 2005), DESYRE (Carlon et al., 2007, Carlon et al., 2008), and SAFIRA II (Schädler et al., 2007, Morio et al., 2008). These projects propose concepts and tools for a regional analysis of environmental issues related to contaminated sites, for regional risk assessment, for prioritization of investment and rehabilitation on industrial land parcels and brownfields or for cost–benefit socioeconomic analyses. Beside these megasite-oriented projects, other decision support systems have been developed (Béranger et al., 2006), based on GIS systems, e.g. SMARTe (Vega et al., 2009) or DECERNS (Sullivan et al., 2009) for data management and cartography and for regional scale risk assessment for contaminated sites, SADA (Purucker et al., 2009) or ERAMANIA (Semenzin et al., 2009) for ecological risk assessment, BOS (Tait et al., 2004, Tait et al., 2008, Chisala et al., 2007) for the management of groundwater in urban areas and BASINS (Kinerson et al., 2009), RISKBASE (Brils and Harris, 2009) or CatchRisk (Troldborg et al., 2008) for water pollution risk assessment and management at catchment scale. However, these projects do not really propose specific indicators for the quality of groundwater seen as a regional resource (Caterina et al., 2009). The objective here is to fill this gap by proposing a flux-based methodology to calculate a groundwater quality indicator that considers the cumulative effect of multiple, spatially-distributed pollution sources with multiple types of contaminants. This approach can be used for groundwater quality trend assessment and for groundwater pollution risk assessment on groundwater bodies.

The methodology and related tools are described in details and illustrated using a synthetic example and a first real scale application to a deteriorated groundwater body in Belgium.

Section snippets

Methodology for regional risk assessment

The methodology for regional risk assessment is summarized in Fig. 1. The scale of application corresponds to the groundwater body defined in the context of the EU water framework directive as the groundwater management unit for aquifers in Europe. The approach can also straightforwardly be limited and applied to parts of groundwater bodies where stronger deterioration of water quality is observed or to specific areas such as contaminated megasites. In the groundwater body of interest, the

Illustrations

Two examples are proposed to illustrate the methodology and to show its usefulness for groundwater management in urbanized and industrialized areas: a synthetic example and the first results of a large scale application on a deteriorated groundwater body in Belgium.

Acknowledgments

This research has been performed in the scope of the FRAC-WECO project financed by the Belgian Federal Science Policy Programme BELSPO (Project Nb SD/TE/02A). Thanks to all public partners that provided us with data on contaminated sites (SPW-OWD, SPW-Groundwater Division, SPAQuE), to all FRAC-WECO project partners (ULg-LEAE, BRGM, VUB, VITO) and members of the follow-up committee for the fruitful discussions on the subject and to the two anonymous reviewers of the original manuscript.

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