Presenter(s)

Tesfalem Gebretsadik Mehari

Download

Download Project (250 KB)

Description

This study is about identifying the potential contaminants for the Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer (GMBVA). This study aims to mark areas with high contamination levels to take appropriate measures in ensuring the wellbeing of the community around. The location for GMBVA distributes in southwest Ohio, which is a groundwater that covers a total area about 2060 Km2. This Aquifer is formed in sedimentary rock deposited by glaciers that holds more than a trillion gallons of water. Therefore, the GMBVA is a valuable resource for 1.5 million people in southwest Ohio. The depth of groundwater table of the GMBVA system is less than 20 feet, which makes the GMBVA highly susceptible to contamination from the surface pollution.Generally, an aquifer or groundwater can be polluted by natural factors such as geological contamination contacting with salty water body surface as well as man-made contaminations. This study was focused on identifying and mapping different man-made contaminations that can infiltrated directly to GMBVA, including road salt, agriculture, residential area from land cover data, and the depth to groundwater.The study data contains roads, agriculture, residential area, wells, and aquifer boundaries. All these data are processed and analyzed to identify potential contamination areas. This study aims to categorize the areas into high, medium, and low depending on the overlying of the contamination factors. From the current analyzing result we found that contaminating factors lie on the surface of an Aquifer with a low depth value of wells are at high risk and wells at a high depth value are low risk. By far, we can distinguish areas of highly exposed, or less exposed or no exposed contamination on recharge areas.We would further examine the affected aquifers and take future action to prevent and or reduce further contamination of aquifers in the study area.

Publication Date

4-22-2021

Project Designation

Capstone Project

Primary Advisor

Chia-Yu Wu

Primary Advisor's Department

Geology

Keywords

Stander Symposium project, College of Arts and Sciences

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Clean Water and Sanitation; Good Health and Well-Being

Contamination Potential of Great Miami Buried Valley Aquifer (GMBVA)

Share

COinS