Simulating an exclusion zone for vapour intrusion of TCE from groundwater into indoor air

This paper is an extension of the work by Yu et al. (2009) to examine exposure pathways of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) originating from a NAPL source zone located below the water table, and their potential impact on multiple residential dwellings down-gradient of the source zone. The three-dimensional problem geometry is based on the Rivett (1995) field experiment in the Borden aquifer, and contains houses located both above and adjacent to the groundwater plume in order to define an exclusion zone. Simulation results using the numerical model CompFlow Bio indicate that houses which are laterally offset from the groundwater plume are less affected by vapour intrusion than those located directly above the plume due to limited transverse horizontal flux of TCE within the groundwater plume, in agreement with the ASTM (2008) guidance. Uncertainty in the simulated indoor air concentration is sensitive to heterogeneity in the permeability structure of a stratigraphically continuous aquifer, with uncertainty defined as the probability of simulated indoor air concentrations exceeding the NYSDOH (2005) regulatory limit. Within this uncertainty framework, this work shows that the Johnson and Ettinger (1991), ASTM (2008) and CompFlow Bio models all delineate an identical exclusion zone at a 99.9% confidence interval of indoor air concentrations based on the probability of exceedence. ► We simulate vapour intrusion pathway from groundwater into multiple houses. ► CompFlow Bio, J&E models and the ASTM (2008) are used to delineate an exclusion zone. ► We quantify the conservativeness of the J&E model by comparison to CompFlow Bio. ► Weak transverse dispersivity generates narrow exclusion zones adjacent to the plume.