MODELING TO MAXIMIZE ACCEPTABLE NONPOINT SOURCE GROUNDWATER POLLUTION: THEORY AND APPLICATION

Poorly managed nonpoint source pollution threatens to create regional groundwater quality problems. Management models can be a useful tool to elucidate groundwater protection strategies. A steady-state groundwater model is adapted for application over the town of Falmouth, Massachusetts. The model is a linear program (LP), which has equations from a numerical steady-state transport model included as part of the LP constrain set. Results are presented where the management model is used to elucidate optimum development patterns and associated groundwater quality impacts for maximum expansion of residential/commercial land uses known to contribute nitrates to the aquifer underlying Falmouth. Multiple model runs are used to investigate how land use density restrictions and groundwater quality standards operate in tandem to prevent unacceptable groundwater nitrate contamination.