1st Edition

Sediment and Contaminant Transport in Surface Waters

By Wilbert Lick Copyright 2009
    414 Pages 174 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    Contaminated bottom sediments and their negative impacts on water quality are a major problem in surface waters throughout the United States as well as in many other parts of the world. Even after elimination of the primary contaminant sources, these bottom sediments will be a main source of contaminants for many years to come. In order to determine environmentally-effective and cost-effective remedial actions, the transport and fate of these sediments and associated contaminants must be understood and quantified. This book details how to best approach contaminated sediments, allowing readers to better assess and address water quality and health issues, water body management, and potential remediation methods.

    Understand and Address Major Environmental Threats to Our Water

    Sediment and contaminant transport is an enormously rich and complex field that involves physical, chemical, and biological processes as well as the mathematical modeling of these processes. While many books have been written on these broad topics, Sediment and Contaminant Transport in Surface Waters takes a more focused approach, highlighting areas that have been investigated but not covered thoroughly elsewhere.

    This volume emphasizes the erosion, deposition, flocculation, and transport of fine-grained, cohesive sediments; the effects of finite rates of sorption on the transport and fate of hydrophobic contaminants; and the effects of major events such as floods and storms. Despite these emphases, the overall goal of the text is to present a general description and understanding of the transport of sediments and contaminants in surface waters as well as procedures to quantitatively predict this transport.

     

    Introduction

    Examples of Contaminated Sediment Sites

    Hudson River

    Lower Fox River

    Passaic River/Newark Bay

    Palos Verdes Shelf

    Modeling, Parameterization, and Non-Unique Solutions

    Modeling

    Parameterization and Non-Unique Solutions

    The Importance of Big Events

    Overview of Book

    General Properties of Sediments

    Particle Sizes

    Classification of Sizes

    Measurements of Particle Size

    Size Distributions

    Variations in Size of Natural Sediments throughout a System

    Settling Speeds

    Mineralogy

    Flocculation of Suspended Sediments

    Bulk Densities of Bottom Sediments

    Measurements of Bulk Density

    Variations in Bulk Density

    Sediment Erosion

    Devices for Measuring Sediment Resuspension/Erosion

    Annular Flumes

    The Shaker

    Sedflume

    A Comparison of Devices

    Results of Field Measurements

    Detroit River

    Kalamazoo River

    Effects of Bulk Properties on Erosion Rates

    Bulk Density

    Particle Size

    Mineralogy

    Organic Content

    Salinity

    Gas

    Comparison of Erosion Rates

    Benthic Organisms and Bacteria

    Initiation of Motion and a Critical Shear Stress for Erosion

    Theoretical Analysis for Noncohesive Particles

    Effects of Cohesive Forces

    Effects of Bulk Density

    Effects of Clay Minerals

    Approximate Equations for Erosion Rates

    Cohesive Sediments

    Noncohesive Sediments

    A Uniformly Valid Equation

    Effects of Clay Minerals

    Effects of Surface Slope

    Noncohesive Sediments

    Critical Stresses for Cohesive Sediments

    Experimental Results for Cohesive Sediments

    Flocculation, Settling, Deposition, and Consolidation

    Basic Theory of Aggregation

    Collision Frequency

    Particle Interactions

    Results of Flocculation Experiments

    Flocculation due to Fluid Shear

    Flocculation due to Differential Settling

    Settling Speeds of Flocs

    Flocs Produced in a Couette Flocculator

    Flocs Produced in a Disk Flocculator

    An Approximate and Uniformly Valid Equation for the Settling Speed of a Floc

    Models of Flocculation

    General Formulation and Model

    A Simple Model

    A Very Simple Model

    An Alternate Derivation

    Fractal Theory

    Deposition

    Processes and Parameters That Affect Deposition

    Fluid Turbulence

    Particle Dynamics

    Particle Size Distribution

    Flocculation

    Bed Armoring/Consolidation

    Partial Coverage of Previously Deposited Sediments by Recently Deposited Sediments

    Experimental Results and Analyses

    Implications for Modeling Deposition

    Consolidation

    Experimental Results

    Basic Theory of Consolidation

    Consolidation Theory Including Gas

    Appendix A

    Appendix B

    Hydrodynamic Modeling

    General Considerations in the Modeling of Currents

    Basic Equations and Boundary Conditions

    Eddy Coefficients

    Bottom Shear Stress

    Effects of Currents

    Effects of Waves and Currents

    Wind Stress

    Sigma Coordinates

    Numerical Stability

    Two-Dimensional, Vertically Integrated, Time-Dependent Models

    Basic Equations and Approximations

    The Lower Fox River

    Wind-Driven Currents in Lake Erie

    Two-Dimensional, Horizontally Integrated, Time-Dependent Models

    Basic Equations and Approximations

    Time-Dependent Thermal Stratification in Lake Erie

    Three-Dimensional, Time-Dependent Models

    Lower Duwamish Waterway

    Numerical Error Due to Use of Sigma Coordinates

    Model of Currents and Salinities

    Flow around Partially Submerged Cylindrical Bridge Piers

    Wave Action

    Wave Generation

    Lake Erie

    A Southwest Wind

    A North Wind

    Relation of Wave Action to Sediment Texture

    Modeling Sediment Transport

    Overview of Models

    Dimensions

    Quantities That Significantly Affect Sediment Transport

    Erosion Rates

    Particle/Floc Size Distributions

    Settling Speeds

    Deposition Rates

    Flocculation of Particles

    Consolidation

    Erosion into Suspended Load and/or Bedload

    Bed Armoring

    Transport as Suspended Load and Bedload

    Suspended Load

    Bedload

    Erosion into Suspended Load and/or Bedload

    Bed Armoring

    Simple Applications

    Transport and Coarsening in a Straight Channel

    Transport in an Expansion Region

    Transport in a Curved Channel

    The Vertical Transport and Distribution of Flocs

    Rivers

    Sediment Transport in the Lower Fox River

    Model Parameters

    A Time-Varying Flow

    Upstream Boundary Condition for Sediment Concentration

    Use of Sedflume Data in Modeling Erosion Rates

    Effects of Grid Size

    Sediment Transport in the Saginaw River

    Sediment Transport during Spring Runoff

    Long-Term Sediment Transport Predictions

    Lakes and Bays

    Modeling Big Events in Lake Erie

    Transport due to Uniform Winds

    The 1940 Armistice Day Storm

    Geochronology

    Comparison of Sediment Transport Models for Green Bay

    Formation of a Turbidity Maximum in an Estuary

    Numerical Model and Transport Parameters

    Numerical Calculations

    A Constant-Depth, Steady-State Flow

    A Variable-Depth, Steady-State Flow

    A Variable-Depth, Time-Dependent Tidal Flow

    The Sorption and Partitioning of Hydrophobic Organic

    Chemicals

    Experimental Results and Analyses

    Basic Experiments

    Parameters That Affect Steady-State Sorption and Partitioning

    Colloids from the Sediments

    Colloids from the Water

    Organic Content of Sediments

    Sorption to Benthic Organisms and Bacteria

    Nonlinear Isotherms

    Modeling the Dynamics of Sorption

    A Diffusion Model

    A Simple and Computationally Efficient Model

    Calculations with the General Model and Comparisons with Experimental Results

    Desorption

    Adsorption

    Short-Term Adsorption Followed by Desorption

    Effects of Chemical Properties on Adsorption

    Modeling the Transport and Fate of Hydrophobic Chemicals

    Effects of Erosion/Deposition and Transport

    The Saginaw River

    Green Bay, Effects of Finite Sorption Rates

    The Diffusion Approximation for the Sediment-Water Flux

    Simple, or Fickian, Diffusion

    Sorption Equilibrium

    A Mass Transfer Approximation

    The Sediment-Water Flux due to Molecular Diffusion

    Hexachlorobenzene (HCB)

    Experiments

    Theoretical Models

    Diffusion of Tritiated Water

    HCB Diffusion and Sorption

    Additional HOCs

    Experimental Results

    Theoretical Model

    Numerical Calculations

    Long-Term Sediment-Water Fluxes

    Related Problems

    Flux from Contaminated Bottom Sediments to Clean Overlying Water

    Flux Due to a Contaminant Spill

    The Sediment-Water Flux Due to Bioturbation

    Physical Mixing of Sediments by Organisms

    The Flux of an HOC Due to Organisms

    Experimental Procedures

    Theoretical Model

    Experimental and Modeling Results

    Modeling Bioturbation as a Diffusion with Finite-Rate Sorption Process

    The Sediment-Water Flux Due to "Diffusion"

    The Flux and the Formation of Sediment Layers Due to Erosion/Deposition

    Comparison of "Diffusive" Fluxes and Decay Times

    Observations of Well-Mixed Layers

    The Determination of an Effective h

    Environmental Dredging: A Study of Contaminant Release and Transport

    Transport of Dredged Particles

    Transport and Desorption of Chemical Initially Sorbed to Dredged Particles

    Diffusive Release of Contaminant from the Residual Layers

    Volatilization

    Water Quality Modeling, Parameterization, and Non-Unique Solutions

    Process Models

    Sediment Erosion

    Sediment Deposition

    Bed Armoring

    The Sediment-Water Flux of HOCs Due to "Diffusion"

    Equilibrium Partitioning

    Numerical Grid

    Parameterization and Non-Unique Solutions

    Implications for Water Quality Modeling

    References

    Index

     

    Biography

    Wilbert Lick