MODELING REGIONAL GROUNDWATER-FLOW IN FULTON COUNTY, INDIANA - USING THE ANALYTIC ELEMENT METHOD

In 1989, the Four County Landfill (FCL) in Fulton County, Indiana was closed by a federal judge because of regulatory violations and its threat to the environment. As part of the litigation, a ground-water flow modeling study was performed on behalf of a group of concerned citizens. Time constraints and, even more importantly, budgetary constraints called for an approach which could be implemented quickly and would yield meaningful results without additional field data acquisition. The modeling was performed with the relatively new analytic element method. The new method employs superposition of closed form analytic solutions, rather than a grid or element network, and proved an effective tool in answering some unresolved hydrogeological questions. The study results demonstrate substantially higher regional and local hydraulic conductivities than suggested by the landfill consultants, well-connected upper and lower aquifer zones at the site, and potential ground-water travel times from the landfill to the nearby Tippecanoe River of less than 15 years.