Environmental Fate and Transport Modeling for Perfluorooctanoic Acid Emitted from the Washington Works Facility in West Virginia
Abstract
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) has been detected in environmental samples in Ohio and West Virginia near the Washington Works Plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia. This paper describes retrospective fate and transport modeling of PFOA concentrations in local air, surface water, groundwater, and six municipal water systems based on estimates of historic emission rates from the facility, physicochemical properties of PFOA, and local geologic and meteorological data beginning in 1951. We linked several environmental fate and transport modeling systems to model PFOA air dispersion, transit through the vadose zone, surface water transport, and groundwater flow and transport. These include AERMOD, PRZM-3, BreZo, MODFLOW, and MT3DMS. Several thousand PFOA measurements in municipal well water have been collected in this region since 1998. Our linked modeling system performs better than expected, predicting water concentrations within a factor of 2.1 of the average observed water concentration for each of the six municipal water districts after adjusting the organic carbon partition coefficient to fit the observed data. After model calibration, the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient for predicted versus observed water concentrations is 0.87. These models may be useful for estimating past and future public well water PFOA concentrations in this region.
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Transport modeling at individual contaminated sites indicates that soils and the vadose zone serve as a significant long-term source of PFAS.
“The results of transport modeling conducted at individual contaminated sites also indicate that soils and the vadoze zone serve as a significant long-term source of PFAS (Shin et al., 2011; Xiao et al., 2015; Weber et al., 2017).”
From PFAS concentrations in soils: Background levels versus contaminated sites (2020) · cites this paper as Shin et al., 2011
Davis et al. (2007) and Shin et al. (2011) reported concentrations down to ~5 meters.
“Davis et al. (2007) and Shin et al. (2011) reported concentrations down to ~5 meters.”
From PFAS concentrations in soils: Background levels versus contaminated sites (2020) · cites this paper as Shin et al. (2011)
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References 29 · Cited by 198
- Authors
- Shin, H.-M., Vieira, V. M., Ryan, P. B., Detwiler, R., Sanders, B., Steenland, K., & Bartell, S. M.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Irvine (US)
- Boston University (US)
- Emory University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Shin, Hyeong-Moo
- ORCID
- Venue
- Environmental Science & Technology
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2011-01-12
- Volume
- 45
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1435-1442
- ISSN
- 0013-936X (ISSN-L)
- 1520-5851
- OpenAlex
- W2007191987
- Cited by
- 198
- References
- 29
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 20 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 10.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Environmental Science & Technology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- University of California, Irvine
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances research
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Groundwater flow and contamination studies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Fluoride Effects and Removal
- Keywords
- perfluorooctanoic acid, atmospheric dispersion, vadose zone transport, groundwater contamination, surface water transport, organic carbon partition coefficient, model calibration, PFAS emissions, AERMOD, MODFLOW, MT3DMS
- MeSH terms
- Caprylates, Environmental Monitoring, Fluorocarbons, Models, Theoretical, Ohio, Retrospective Studies, Water Pollutants, Chemical, Water Supply, West Virginia, Groundwater
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