ON DEMAND - Learnings from Numerical Modelling of Field-scale PFAS Transport in the Vadose Zone and Groundwater Systems

Contamination by per-and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have occurred globally in soil and groundwater systems due to decades of surface application of firefighting foams (AFFF). At PFAS contaminated sites, the unsaturated soil horizon often serves as a long-term source for sustained PFAS leakage into groundwaters as well as contamination of surface water runoff. Detailed understanding of the PFAS fate in the vadose zone below AFFF source zones is required in order to predict future mass loading rates to the saturated zone, and as the basis for the design of efficient remediation measures.

Numerical models have been able to add to the understanding of PFAS mobility across the unsaturated and saturated zone and results from modelling work at contaminated sites are used to assess the relative importance of physical flow and transport processes on the overall PFAS mobility and mass loading rates.

About the Speakers:

Dr Henning Prommer
Research Scientist
CSIRO

Dr Henning Prommer obtained his PhD from the Centre for Water Research at the University of Western Australia, and held postdoctoral appointments at the University of Edinburgh (UK), University of Tűbingen (Germany) and Delft University of Technology (Netherlands). Since 2011 he holds a joint appointment as a Winthrop Research Professor at the University of Western Australia and as a Principal Research Scientist and Team Leader in CSIRO's Environmental Contaminant Mitigation and Technologies Program. His main expertise and research interests are the development and application of reactive transport models to water quality issues in porous media, including PFAS transport at field scale in complex geological media.

Prof. Ilka Wallis
Lecturer Hydrogeology/Hydrochemistry
Flinders University

Associate Professor Ilka Wallis is a hydrogeologist with areas of expertise in quantitative hydrogeology and geochemistry. Ilka focuses on the development of reactive geochemical transport models which integrate fundamental processes that are normally studied in isolation (hydrogeological, mineralogical, geochemical and biochemical). Areas of specialisation include the assessment and prediction of the fate of pollutants, including PFAS, in the saturated and unsaturated zone.