Masters Theses

Date of Award

8-1995

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Environmental Engineering

Major Professor

Bruce Tschantz

Committee Members

Roger Clapp, James Smoot

Abstract

In this study, the effects that chemical pre-treatment of a suspended sediment sample have when modeling particle-bound contaminant transport were examined. To accomplish this, lake bed samples contaminated with cesium-137 were resuspended and analyzed for grain size distribution using the newly developed Settling Column Test. Three samples were pre-treated differently to see the effects pre-treatment have on the grain size distribution. The first sample tested was the control, undergoing no chemical pre-treatment. The second was dispersed with sodium bicarbonate, while the third was treated with hydrogen peroxide to oxidize and remove organics. The samples were then tested for cesium-137 concentrations per size class. Results from the laboratory testing showed that using sodium bicarbonate as a dispersant causes no difference in contaminant to grain size distribution results. However, removal of organics by oxidation causes an increase in the percent of clays. Results from these tests were used to adjust initially identical Hydrological Simulation Program-Fortran (HSPF) parameter sets representing the White Oak Creek Watershed in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The HSPF parameter sets were used to simulate particle-bound contaminant transport. Once adjustment of the HSPF input files was complete, the HSPF simulated five years of precipitation data including two hypothetical one-hundred year frequency storm events. These simulations showed that using a hydrogen peroxide treated sample to adjust the HSPF parameters yielded results which differ from the control, or "natural" sample results, although the difference is considered to be minor for the comparative simulations reported here.

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