Specification of Validated Groundwater Flow and Transport Models for Historical Perfluorinated Compound Dose Reconstruction
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) contamination in Hoosick Falls, New York, resulted from historical industrial activities, with groundwater transport identified as the primary pathway impacting the municipal wellfield within the Village of Hoosick Falls, whereas atmospheric deposition remains a potential source of private well contamination. This study employed two complementary methodologies to evaluate historical municipal and private well contamination: (i) groundwater flow and transport modeling of PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, and PFNA within the village, and (ii) Geographic Information Systems (GIS)–based inverse distance weighting (IDW) interpolation of PFOA concentrations in private wells across the broader Town of Hoosick. Groundwater modeling results indicated that contaminant migration within the village is well characterized by advective, and dispersive processes influenced by hydraulic gradients, aquifer heterogeneity, and pumping activities. The study model predicted that PFOA displayed extremely high mobility within the modeled system, whereas PFOS, PFHxS, and PFNA exhibited somewhat greater retardation and delayed transport. Although model validation efforts could not explore years prior to the advent of environmental monitoring, the study confirmed that a steady release of PFOA into site groundwater would have quickly established a consistent PFOA level in wellfield groundwater. Private-well data obtained across the town indicated PFOA detections outside the delineated groundwater PFOA plume in areas that lack hydraulic continuity with the modeled flow system. Spatial and vertical analyses utilizing GIS revealed heterogeneous patterns lacking a coherent signature of a single dominant transport mechanism. Although a pathway involving atmospheric deposition presented a conceptually plausible hypothesis, it could not be quantitatively assessed due to the absence of historical emission data and the non-identifiability of key parameters such as removal efficiencies. This suggested that hindcasting private well concentrations in the Town of Hoosick Falls will pose a substantial challenge.
Author: Arthur, Cindy A
Institution: University at Albany, State University of New York
Language: English
Subfield: Environmental Chemistry
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7167178719