Research Activities at U.S. Government Agencies in Subsurface Reactive Transport Modeling

The fate of contaminants in the environment is controlled by both chemical reactions and transport phenomena in the subsurface. Our ability to understand the significance of these processes over time requires an accurate conceptual model that incorporates the various mechanisms of coupled chemical and physical processes. Adsorption, desorption, ion exchange, precipitation, dissolution, growth, solid solution, redox, microbial activity, and other processes are often incorporated into reactive transport models for the prediction of contaminant fate and transport. U.S. federal agencies use such models to evaluate contaminant transport and provide guidance to decision makers and regulators for treatment issues. We provide summaries of selected research projects and programs to demonstrate the level of activity in various applications and to present examples of recent advances in subsurface reactive transport modeling.