Potential contamination from hazardous and solid waste landfills stemming from population increase, rapid industrialization, and the proliferation of assembly plants known as the maquiladoras, are of major concern in the U.S.-Mexican border area. Additionally, historical, current, and future stresses on the Hueco Bolson alluvial aquifer in the El Paso/Ciudad Juarez area due to excessive groundwater withdrawal can affect contaminant migration in the area. In the current study, an updated and improved three-dimensional numerical groundwater flow and transport model is developed using a current Hueco Bolson groundwater availability model as its basis. The model with contaminant transport is required to access and characterize the extent of vulnerability of the aquifer to potential contamination from landfills in the El Paso/Ciudad Juarez border area. The model developed in this study is very capable of serving as the basis of future studies for water availability, water quality, and contamination assessments in the Hueco Bolson.

The implementation of fate and transport modeling and the incorporation of the Visual MODFLOW^® pre and post processor, requiring MODFLOW 2000 data conversion, enabled significant enhancements to the numerical modeling and computing capabilities for the Hueco Bolson. The model in the current research was also developed by employing MT3DMS^©, ZONEBUDGET, and Visual PEST^® for automated calibrations.

Simulation results found that the Hueco Bolson released more water from storage than the aquifer was being recharged in response to increased pumping to supply the growing border area population. Hence, significant head drops and high levels of drawdown were observed in the El Paso/Ciudad Juarez area. Predictive simulations were completed representing scenarios of potential contamination from the border area sites. Fate and transport results were most sensitive to hydraulic conductivities, flow velocities, and directions at the sites. Sites that were located within the vicinity of the El Paso Valley and the Rio Grande River, where head differences and permeabilities were significant, exhibited the highest potentials for contaminant migration.