Date of Award

1-1-2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Environmental Engineering

First Advisor

Yeo Howe Lim

Abstract

This research focuses on a point-source oil contamination scenario for surface flow created by a pipeline failure. In this hypothetical scenario, a pipeline crossing two different river types (wide and regulated, and narrow, slightly meandering) will begin to leak and contaminant the rivers. CORMIX, a U.S. EPA supported mixing zone model, was used to model concentration of the near-field, starting from the source of the contaminant and throughout the region of interest. CORMIX takes the fundamental behaviors of an oil spill to provide an accurate and easy-to-use fate and transport model. The severity of the oil spill is categorized into three groups based on the interaction with two water quality standards. These water quality standards are the Criteria Continuous Concentration (CCC) and the Criteria Maximum Concentration (CMC). These concentration levels are based on values that are potentially harmful to aquatic fish and plant life in the rivers.

The hypothesis is that there will be at least one trial for each river type that both the Criteria Continuous Concentration (CCC) and the Criteria Maximum Concentration (CMC) will not be met in the region of interest (16,000 meters or 10 miles). This hypothesis has been supported. When reviewing the results, seventeen of thirty-six hypothetical oil spills were determined to be harmful to the environment. Twelve of the seventeen were classified as severe, with concentrations ending the region of interest above the CMC.

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