One of Evergreen’s primary objectives through the remedial investigations under Act 2 was to characterize the facility’s geologic framework and the water-bearing units it supports. Potential flow pathways for contaminant transport could be evaluated in this manner using recent groundwater observations from hundreds of wells at the facility. Evergreen’s groundwater model is calibrated and validated to these recent groundwater data to provide defensible fate and transport simulations that are based on current conditions. A sensitivity analysis was performed on the groundwater model to evaluate the impact of changes to inputs on performance and increase confidence in its ability to make predictions.
Evergreen recognizes that climate changes are predicted that could alter local hydrologic conditions near the facility, such as higher water levels in the water-table aquifer or higher tides in the Schuylkill River. An assessment of climate change from available, published resources and the potential implications to Evergreen’s groundwater model will be included in the upcoming Fate and Transport RIR.