EAS446lec1 - EAS 44600 Groundwater Hydrology Lecture 1...

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EAS 44600 Groundwater Hydrology
Lecture 1: Introduction
Dr. Pengfei Zhang
Introduction
The Woburn Site
Figure 1-1. Aerial photo showing the locations of Well G, Well H, Beatrice Foods, and W. R.
Grace (Courtesy of Scott Bair).
Aberjona
River

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The city of Woburn, MA developed two water supply wells (G & H, Figure 1-1) in the 1960’s.
These wells provided ~27% of the community’s water supply. The unpleasant taste and odor of
the water was noted by citizens using this water.
The high incidence of childhood leukemia in the Pine Street area of Woburn in the 1970’s
prompted the local citizens to suspect a linkage with the low quality water from wells G & H.
The water from these wells was found to contain significant amounts of chlorinated organic
compounds , which could only have resulted from careless disposal of degreasing agents by one
of the nearby industrial plants.
In 1982 local citizens whose children had developed leukemia filed a lawsuit against two nearby
industries with known or suspected contamination problems (W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods).
Beatrice Foods was located across the Aberjona River from wells G & H (Figure 1-1). The goal
of the plaintiff’s lawyer was to prove that chlorinated solvents had percolated into the aquifer
and were drawn by pumping action into wells G & H.
The plaintiff hired an expert witness, George Pinder of Princeton University, to determine
whether the contaminants could have traveled from Beatrice Foods to Wells G & H before the
late 1960’s, the period after which the leukemias began to appear. On the witness stand Pinder
described features such as saturated and unsaturated zones , capillary fringes