Environmental Health - Toxic Substances Hydrology Program
The answer may be yes, but it might take much longer then scientists originally guessed. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists are studying the natural restoration of an aquifer that was contaminated by 60 years of land disposal of treated sewage. Studies at the abandoned sewage-disposal facility at the Massachusetts Military Reservation on Cape Cod have shown that:
The Department of Defense is using the predictions of the long natural-cleanup time to develop plume-management strategies that protect the environment and drinking-water supplies in the Cape Cod sole source aquifer.
Natural restoration of a sewage plume in a sand and gravel aquifer, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, by D.R. LeBlanc, K.M. Hess, D.B. Kent, R.L. Smith, L.B. Barber, K.G. Stollenwerk, and K.W. Campo
Evolution of a ground-water sewage plume after removal of the 60-year-long source, Cape Cod, Massachusetts--Changes in the distribution of dissolved oxygen, boron, and organic carbon, by L.B. Barber and S.H. Keefe
Evolution of a ground-water sewage plume after removal of the 60-year-long source, Cape Cod, Massachusetts--Fate of volatile organic compounds, by K.W. Campo and K.M. Hess
Evolution of a ground-water sewage plume after removal of the 60-year-long source, Cape Cod, Massachusetts--Inorganic nitrogen species, by R.L. Smith, B.A. Rea Kumler, T.R. Peacock, and D.N. Miller
Evolution of a ground-water sewage plume after removal of the 60-year-long source, Cape Cod, Massachusetts--pH and the fate of phosphate and metals, by D.B. Kent and Valerie Maeder