Abstract
We used the Soil Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) as a framework to develop an empirical Hg flux model for Upper East Fork Poplar Creek (UEFPC), a Hg-contaminated watershed in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. By integrating long-term Hg monitoring data with simulated flow and suspended solid loads in a site-specific empirical Hg transport model, we (1) quantified the spatial, temporal, and flow regime controls on daily Hg flux (adjusted R2 = 0.82) and (2) made predictions about Hg flux under future climate, land use, and management scenarios. We found that 62.79% of the average daily Hg flux in the watershed is currently driven by base flow, whereas variability in Hg flux is driven by storm and extreme flow. We estimate an average annual Hg flux of 28.82 g day-1 leaving the watershed under baseline precipitation, with an estimated 43.73% reduction in daily Hg flux under drought conditions and a 296% increase in daily Hg flux in extreme precipitation scenarios. We estimated that a new mercury treatment facility would result in a 24.7% reduction in Hg flux under baseline conditions and a 33.4% reduction under extreme precipitation scenarios. The study demonstrated the merit of this approach, which can be replicated for sites where information on flow, suspended solids, and Hg concentrations is available.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 127049 |
| Journal | Journal of Hazardous Materials |
| Volume | 423 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 5 2022 |
Funding
Funding for this project was provided by DOE's Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management. We would like to thank Janice Hensley and Jimmy Massey of URS | CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC and Elizabeth Phillips, Laura Hedrick, and Brian Henry of DOE's Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management for their support of Hg technology development in Oak Ridge. We would like to acknowledge the continuous support of the Water Resources Restoration Program at UCOR/RSI, particularly Lynn Sims and Dick Ketelle, for their support in the development of a modeling tool for mercury in East Fork Poplar Creek. Scott Brooks of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Dick Ketelle of RSI provided thoughtful comments on this manuscript. Funding for this project was provided by DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management . We would like to thank Janice Hensley and Jimmy Massey of URS | CH2M Oak Ridge, LLC and Elizabeth Phillips, Laura Hedrick, and Brian Henry of DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management for their support of Hg technology development in Oak Ridge. We would like to acknowledge the continuous support of the Water Resources Restoration Program at UCOR/RSI, particularly Lynn Sims and Dick Ketelle, for their support in the development of a modeling tool for mercury in East Fork Poplar Creek. Scott Brooks of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Dick Ketelle of RSI provided thoughtful comments on this manuscript. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).
Keywords
- Mercury transport function
- SWAT
- Scenario analysis
- Watershed modeling