Fate and transport of pharmaceutical and personal care products in the Detroit River

This thesis was done as an effort to investigate the fate and transport of pharmaceutical chemicals in the Detroit River. Contaminant transport in the Detroit River was performed using the Resource Management Associate (RMA2) program and the Surface Water Modeling Software (SMS) post-processor. In addition, the hydraulic transport characteristics of PPCPs were analyzed. In this research, the transport and fate of chemicals were analyzed using a hydrodynamic mesh model. The hydraulic transport characteristics of the chemicals were estimated based on the chemical transport equations.To simulate field conditions for tracking particles, a sound finite element model was created. The mesh model was validated with the field data. Sensitivity analyses on friction coefficients were performed. Also, water surface profiles and velocity magnitude contours were studied and analyzed.Sensitivity analysis on roughness assignment showed that the hydrodynamic model was very sensitive. Particle tracking analysis showed that the particles were large quantities of contaminant particles were found in the vicinity of water intake structures. Additionally, the released particles had a greater tendency to move towards the Canadian shore of the river. Hydraulic transport analysis revealed that the contaminant spreading was dominated by dispersion. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...