Weston Roundtable: Associate Professor Holly Michael

In the Bengal Basin, contamination of groundwater with naturally-occurring arsenic threatens the health of tens of millions of people. We evaluate deep, low-arsenic groundwater as a mitigation option with numerical models that incorporate physical and chemical heterogeneity of the aquifer system. Results suggest sustainability may be achieved by limiting deep pumping to domestic supply, but highlight risks introduced by the interplay between geologic complexity and groundwater extraction.