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2005 Salt Lake City Annual Meeting (October 16–19, 2005)

Paper No. 11
Presentation Time: 11:30 AM

INFLUENCE OF WATER CHEMISTRY AND TRAVEL DISTANCE ON BACTERIOPHAGE PRD-1 TRANSPORT IN A SANDY AQUIFER


BLANFORD, William J., Geology and Geophysics, Louisiana State University, Rm. E235 Howe-Russell Bldg, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, BRUSSEAU, Mark L., Soil Water and Environmental Science, University of Arizona, Rm. 429 Shantz Building, Tucson, AZ 85721-0038, YEH, T.C. Jim, Hydrology and Water Resources, The University of Arizona, P.O. Box 210011, Tucson, 85721, GERBA, Charles P., Soil, Water and Environmental Science, The University of Arizona, Rm. 429 Shantz Building, Tucson, AZ 75821 and HARVEY, Ronald W., National Research Program, U.S. Geological Survey, 3215 Marine Street, Boulder, CO 80303, blanford@lsu.edu

Experiments were conducted to evaluate the impact of groundwater chemistry and travel distance on the transport and fate behavior of PRD-1, a bacteriophage employed as a surrogate tracer for pathogenic enteric viruses. The experiments were conducted in the unconfined aquifer at the United States Geological Survey Cape Cod Toxic-Substances Hydrology Research Site in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The transport behavior of bromide (Br ) and PRD-1 were evaluated in a sewage-effluent contaminated zone and a shallower uncontaminated zone at this site. Several multilevel sampling devices located along a 13-m transect were used to collect vertically discrete samples to examine longitudinal and vertical variability of PRD-1 retardation and attenuation. The concentration of viable bacteriophage in the aqueous phase decreased greatly during the first few meters of transport. This decrease is attributed to a combination of colloid filtration (attachment) and inactivation. The removal was greater (10 12 relative recovery) and occurred within the first meter for the uncontaminated zone, whereas it was lesser (10 9 relative recovery) and occurred over 4m in the contaminated zone. The lesser removal observed for the contaminated zone is attributed to the influence of sorbed and dissolved organic matter, phosphate, and other anions, which are present in higher concentrations in the contaminated zone, on PRD-1 attachment. After the initial decrease, the aqueous PRD-1 concentrations remained essentially constant in both zones for the remainder of the tests (total travel distances of 13 m), irrespective of variations in geochemical properties within and between the two zones. The viable, mobile PRD-1 particles traveled at nearly the rate of bromide, which was used as a non-reactive tracer. The results of this study indicate that a small fraction of viable virus particles may persist in the aqueous phase and travel significant distances in the subsurface environment.

Session No. 212

T23. Nano- To Field-scale Processes Governing the Transport of Microbes and Colloids in the Subsurface I
Wednesday, 19 October 2005: 8:00 AM-12:00 PM
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 37, No. 7, p.472
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