Bioremediation of a Carbon Tetrachloride Contaminated Aquifer at Schoolcraft, Western Michigan
Investigators:	Michael J. Dybas, Craig S. Criddle, Syed A. Hashsham, David W. Hyndman, Phanikumar S. Mantha, James M. Tiedje, Thomas C. Voice, Roger B. Wallace, David C. Wiggert, X. Zhao

Carbon Tetrachloride (CT) is a common groundwater pollutant and a suspected human carcinogen. To remediate an aquifer contaminated with CT in the village of Schoolcraft in Western Michigan, we designed an efficient biocurtain that uses a set of closely spaced wells spanning the vertical extent of contamination (Hyndman et al., 2000). The spatial and temporal dynamics of microbial transport and CT degradation were studied using laboratory columns and a seven component reactive transport model (Phanikumar et al., 2002). Here acetate is used as an electron donor and nitrate as an electron acceptor. Using parameter estimation based on variable metric methods, we were able to estimate an optimal set of parameters that best describe the observed degradation in laboratory columns. Our reactive transport model based on the estimated parameters for a lab column was found to describe the observed degradation at the Schoolcraft site well.