U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

icon-dot-gov

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

icon-https

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Arsenic and Iron data (2010-2015) for petroleum plume mass balance, Bemidji MN

Natural attenuation of organic contaminants in groundwater can give rise to a series of complex biogeochemical reactions that release secondary contaminants to groundwater. In a crude oil contaminated aquifer, biodegradation of petroleum hydrocarbons is coupled with the reduction of ferric iron (Fe(III)) hydroxides in aquifer sediments. As a result, naturally occurring arsenic (As), adsorbed to Fe(III) hydroxides in the aquifer sediment, is mobilized from sediment into groundwater. However, Fe(III) in sediment of other zones of the aquifer has the capacity to attenuate dissolved As via re-sorption. To better evaluate how long-term biodegradation coupled with Fe-reduction and As mobilization can redistribute As mass in contaminated aquifer, we quantified mass partitioning of Fe and As in the aquifer based on field observation data. Results show that Fe and As are spatially correlated in both groundwater and aquifer sediments. Mass partitioning calculations demonstrate that 99.9% of Fe and 99.5% of As are associated with aquifer sediment. The sediments act as both sources and sinks for As, depending on the redox conditions in the aquifer. Calculations reveal that at least 78% of the original As mass in sediment near the oil has been mobilized into groundwater over the 35-year lifespan of the plume. However, the calculations also show that only a small percentage of As mass (~0.5%) remains in groundwater, due to resorption onto sediment. At the leading edge of the plume, where groundwater is suboxic, sediments sequester Fe and As, causing As to accumulate to concentrations 5.6 times greater than background concentrations. However, current arsenic sinks can serve as future sources of arsenic as the plume evolves over time. The mass balance approach used in this study can is applicable to As cycling in other aquifers where groundwater As results from biodegradation of an organic carbon point source coupled with Fe reduction.

Get Data and Metadata
Author(s) Brady A. Ziegler, Madeline E. Schreiber, Isabelle M Cozzarelli orcid, Crystal Ng
Publication Date 2017
Beginning Date of Data 2011
Ending Date of Data 2014
Data Contact
DOI https://doi.org/10.5066/F7280648
Citation Ziegler, B.A., Schreiber, M.E., Cozzarelli, I.M., and Ng, C., 2017, Arsenic and Iron data (2010-2015) for petroleum plume mass balance, Bemidji MN: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/F7280648.
Metadata Contact
Metadata Date 2020-08-31
Related Publication
Citations of these data

Loading https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2017.08.110

Access public
License http://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/
Loading...
Harvest Source: ScienceBase
Harvest Date: 2024-09-03T10:21:07.825Z