Probabilistic assessment of ground-water contamination .1. Geostatistical framework

Characterizing the extent and severity of ground-water contamination at waste sites is expensive and time-consuming. A probabilistic approach, based on the acceptance of uncertainty and a finite probability of making classification errors (contaminated relative to a regulatory threshold vs, uncontaminated), is presented as an alternative to traditional site characterization methodology, The approach utilizes geostatistical techniques to identify and model the spatial continuity of contamination at a site (variography) and to develop alternate plausible simulations of contamination fields (conditional simulation). Probabilistic summaries of many simulations provide tools for (a) estimating the range of plausible contaminant concentrations at unsampled locations, (b) identifying the locations of boundaries between contaminated and uncontaminated portions of the site and the degree of certainty in those locations, and (c) estimating the range of plausible values for total contaminant mass. The first paper in the series presents the geostatistical framework and illustrates the approach using synthetic data for a hypothetical site. The second paper presents an application of the proposed methodology to the probabilistic assessment of ground-water contamination at a site involving ground-water contamination by nitrate and herbicide in a shallow, unconfined alluvial aquifer in an agricultural area in eastern Oregon.