Donna A. Read, ConSolve, Inc. & John H. Carrillo, ProTechnics Environmental Services, Inc.
In lieu of pending EPA and NRC regulations covering the monitoring of ground water supplies of drinking water as it relates to the public health, both private and municipal water districts, and utilities will be required to monitor for naturally occurring radioactive materials, NORM, and their constituents, ie... Radon, Radium, and Thorium. This monitoring will require the utility districts to utilize and employ "BAT", best available technology. A more advanced set of CAE, computer aided engineering, tools are beginning to appear that combine data, graphics, and analysis capabilities within a spatial model. CAE tools are considered in this paper to fit into the BAT category. CAE can assist independent water districts as well as broad based watershed and aquifers utilized by municipal water districts in data management, engineering analysis and complex site visualization. Water companies can project regions that could create an environmental impact on public health. Data involved, ie... mechanics of ore zone hydrology in aquifers, in site assessment and analysis can now be integrated into a single model called a virtual site. The virtual site concept of data management uses an electronic version of a geotechnical engineer's conceptual site model. Please refer to Appendix A for a more detailed description. The petroleum industry is also being impacted by a multitude of environmental issues, both past and pending legislation. Many petroleum companies are initiating a proactive environmental policy. CAE functionality can assist them by providing a vehicle for complex site data management, engineering analysis and site visualization. Concurrently, NORM is under proposed regulations (Revision 3) under the Texas Department of Health Radiation Control. Using the virtual site, engineers can directly query, edit, or manipulate data while the consequences of changes made cascade through the model. To explore the many ramifications of NORM and other potential environmental hazards, 3D graphical presentations of site specific scientific visualizations can be calculated and displayed on the fly.