Groundwater and Environmental Research

Groundwater research

  • Risk assessment of groundwater contamination. Real-time data integration in groundwater flow and transport modeling using the ensemble Kalman filter. Optimal monitoring network design for groundwater management.
  • Groundwater protection and aquifer vulnerability. Groundwater quality. Acid rock drainage from mines.
  • Groundwater and surface water interaction along the White River on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
  • Land subsidence modeling.  Aquifer system response to pumping through ground-surface elevation monitoring with Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR).
  • Understanding flow and transport processes in the Madison aquifer. Caves modeling using multiple point geostatistics.
  • Fate and transport of contaminants; natural attenuation processes.
  • Stray gas migration through shallow aquifers.

Environmental research

  • Environmental effects of mine drainage and tailings disposal. Subsurface contamination and environmental remediation. Water monitoring and water quality assessment on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation through the NSF Pre-Engineering Education Collaborative (PEEC) Program.
  • Environmental risks of fracking.
  • Impacts of energy development to air, water, landscapes, and ecosystems.
  • Mitigation measures for carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

Faculty

Emeritus Faculty

  • Arden Davis
    Groundwater modeling, Contaminant transport, Arsenic and heavy metals
  • Perry Rahn
    Engineering geology, Hydrogeology
  • Foster Sawyer
    Groundwater, Petroleum, Sedimentation

URLs

http://www.westdakotawater.com/
https://www.sdsmt.edu/aquifers/
http://www.sdsmt.edu/Academics/Mining-Hub
 

Research Focus Areas