Prospecting for zones of contaminated ground-water discharge to streams using bottom-sediment gas bubbles

Decomposition of organic-rich bottom sediment in a tidal creek in Maryland results in production of gas bubbles in the bottom sediment during summer and fall. In areas where volatile organic contaminants discharge from ground water, through the bottom sediment, and into the creek, part of the volatile contamination diffuses into the gas bubbles and is released to the atmosphere by ebullition. Collection and analysis of gas bubbles for their volatile organic contaminant content indicate that relative concentrations of the volatile organic contaminants in the gas bubbles are substantially higher in areas where the same contaminants occur in the ground water that discharges to the streams. Analyses of the bubbles located an area of previously unknown ground-water contamination.