Thesis advisor: Rudolph Hon / Road salt deicers are necessary for road safety, yet pose a risk to wildlife and public water supplies by increasing major ion loads above EPA limits. To better understand the fate of deicers after application, we need to know the migration routes and subsurface pathways that deicers take from their sources to points of discharge. This project used sediment core analysis and major ion chemistry analysis of water quality to evaluate the pathways of NaCl and CaCl2 through the subsurface of a shallow glacial aquifer in south east New England. Assessment of sediment cores revealed a heterogeneous subsurface with great variation in hydraulic conductivity. Analysis of major ion concentrations and ion ratios showed both short, direct pathways and deeper, longer pathways indicative of yearly salt retention in the aquifer. Ion chemistry also revealed deicer sources by their variable NaCl to CaCl2 ratios. / Thesis (MS) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Earth and Environmental Sciences.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BOSTON/oai:dlib.bc.edu:bc-ir_104633 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Beutel, David Michael |
| Publisher | Boston College |
| Source Sets | Boston College |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, thesis |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf |
| Rights | Copyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted. |
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