U.S. Geological Survey Toxic Substances Hydrology Program--Proceedings
of the Technical Meeting, Colorado Springs, Colorado, September 20-24, 1993,
Water-Resources Investigations Report 94-4015
  
The Transport of Inorganic Contaminants in a Sewage Plume in
the Cape Cod Aquifer, Massachusetts
by
Brigid A. Rea (U.S. Geological Survey, Boulder, Colo.), Douglas
B. Kent (U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif.), Linda C. D. Anderson
(U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif.), James A. Davis (U.S. Geological
Survey, Menlo Park, Calif.), and Denis R. LeBlanc (U.S. Geological Survey,
Marlborough, Mass.)
Abstract
The active and abandoned sewage-disposal beds at the Massachusetts Military
Reservation sewage-treatment plant are a major source of inorganic contaminants,
such as zinc, copper, and phosphate, in the Cape Cod aquifer, Massachusetts.
The distribution and mobilities of these chemical constituents around the
sewage-treatment plant are strongly affected by geochemical processes; extensive
adsorption results in confinement of the most intensive concentrations to
the near-source region, including currently used and abandoned disposal
facilities. Beyond the disposal facilities, zinc and copper movement continues
to be controlled by sorption processes. Zinc and copper contamination was
present at the same depths, although copper concentrations were much lower
than those of zinc. Phosphate concentrations were high in the suboxic zone
near the source and are controlled by adsorption to sediments. Phosphate
concentrations in the anoxic zone were much lower and likely are controlled
by ferrous phosphate solubility.
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