The new potential for understanding groundwater contaminant transport

The groundwater remediation field has been changing constantly since it first emerged in the 1970s. The remediation field has evolved from a dissolved-phase centric conceptual model to a DNAPL-dominated one, which is now being questioned due to a renewed appreciation of matrix diffusion effects on remediation. Detailed observations about contaminant transport have emerged from the remediation field, and challenge the validity of one of the mainstays of the groundwater solute transport modeling world: the concept of mechanical dispersion (Payne et al. 2008). We review and discuss how a new conceptual model of contaminant transport based on diffusion (the usurper) may topple the well-established position of mechanical dispersion (the status quo) that is commonly used in almost every groundwater contaminant transport model, and evaluate the status of existing models and modeling studies that were conducted using advection-dispersion models.