MODELING GROUNDWATER CONTAMINANT FLOW PATHS IN DELAWARE

Due to the relatively high rates of cancer in the state of Delaware, the Environmental subcommittee of the Delaware Cancer Consortium has requested an investigation of potential links between drinking water supplied by individual shallow domestic wells and cancer incidence. The proposal resulted in a project in which the Delaware Geological Survey (DGS) compiled and analyzed historical groundwater chemistry data made available from various state and federal government offices. The DGS established a database structure for the collection of ground-water quality data. Database structure and data requirements were determined on the basis of interviews with potential users of the database and water resource professionals. The water quality database will be evaluated to identify general statistical measures of contaminant occurrence such as the most frequently occurring classes of contaminants, most frequently occurring contaminants, and ranges of contaminants. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was used to provide a digital contaminant transport path throughout the unconfined (Columbia) aquifer. The estimated contamination paths will be coupled with the water quality database to determine the spatial distributions of contaminants with respect to the wells relative location. The results of the modeling will better aid in the ongoing protection of domestic wells from the risk of contaminant releases.