PREDICTING GROUNDWATER CIRCULATION WELL PERFORMANCE
1
Jason B. Hellman, and 2Andrew Curtis Elmore
1
URS Greiner Woodward Clyde, 101 South 108th Avenue, Omaha, NE 68154; 2URS Greiner Woodward
Cleyde, 10975 El Monte, Suite 100, Overland Park, KS 66211; 1Phone: (402) 334-8181, 1E-mail:
jason_hellman@urscorp.com; 2Phone: (913) 334-1154, 2E-mail: curt_elmore@urscorp.com.
Groundwater circulation well (GCW) techniques are an innovative remedial technology that may
effectively remediate contaminated groundwater in areas where more traditional technologies are
unfavorable. Traditional pump and treat systems may be problematic where concentrated hot spots of
contamination are present, where aquifer drawdown due to remedial activities is unacceptable, where
surface discharge of treated groundwater is unwanted, or where property acquisition is challenging. The
vertical component of groundwater flow induced by GCW systems presents a new challenge to
practitioners evaluating thc potential performance of GCW systems. Modifications were made to two
familiar pump and treat analysis tools, capture-zone type curves and MODFLOW numerical groundwater
flow modeling, to predict site-specific effectiveness of GCW technologies. These techniques were used to
predict the GCW treatment area dimensions. This included the capture zone, recharge zone, and
circulation cell diameter. Additionally, GCW design parameters, including GCW spacing, screen length,
screen placement, and circulation flowrate, were determined. The state of the practice is to use these
predictive tools to design an instrumentation scheme that can effectively evaluate the performance of GCW
systems during full-scale pilot testing.
Key words: groundwater circulation well (GCW), capture zone, recharge zone, circulation cell,
MODFLOW