Numerical modeling of sediment traps after the 2010 Kalamazoo River oil spill, Michigan, USA

Substantial residual deposits from the 2010 Kalamazoo River spill remained in the river system due to formation and transport of Oil-Particle Aggregates (OPAs). It is important for cleanup and recovery efforts to understand the conditions under which an OPA becomes resuspended, transported and re-deposited. An in-house numerical code, HydroSed2D, was utilized to simulate OPA transport and settling in selected natural sediment traps along the Kalamazoo River constructed to concentrate and hold submerged oil and keep it from migrating downstream until it can be recovered. HydroSed2D program enabled a nested approach with an unstructured mesh design which provided a high spatial resolution of the sediment traps.