Abstract: The North Coast Karst Aquifer System of Puerto Rico is the most productive aquifer of the island, serving as a significant source of drinking water and supporting important ecosystems. Water requirements for most of the settlements in the Manati-Vega Baja karst regions are also supplied from karst aquifers. Karst environments are used for the disposal of liquid and solid domestic agricultural, and industrial wastes, which result in karst groundwater pollution. Karst aquifers are often characterized by highly permeable solution conduits. It is have multiple types of porosity and have very high spatial heterogeneity. It is have specific hydraulic and hydrologic characteristics that render them highly vulnerable to pollution from human activities. Karst groundwater becomes polluted more easily and in shorter time periods than water in non-karst aquifers. This paper has been developed to three-dimensional computer ground-water model was constructed of the Manatí-Vega Baja area to improve the understanding of the hydro-chemical verification unconfined upper karst aquifer within the North Coast Province of Puerto Rico. The model initial simulation of the flow, it was calibrated in steady state with trial-and-error and parameter estimation methods the observed head of groundwater table monitoring data of 1995. Results of calibration show that error between observed head and computed head is in allowable range. Also results of computed head with model show that groundwater flow is in the direction of the dominate slope (south to north). Finally MT3D code which simulates advective transport of particles was used for future 16 years estimation of flow path and source of contaminants. Keywords: Numerical simulation, Karst aquifer, groundwater contamination, MT3D, Manati-Vega Baja

Numerical simulation of groundwater flow and solute transport: A case study for Manati-Vega Baja limestone karst aquifer, Puerto Rico

249th National Meeting (2015)

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