Two short courses offered by the National Ground Water Association are slated to take place in Denver next month. "Site Characterization: The Groundwater System" takes place April 26, while "Fundamentals of Groundwater Geochemistry" is scheduled for April 26 to 27.

Designed for those involved with groundwater availability, monitoring, cleanup and modeling projects, as well as new hires, the site characterization course will teach attendees how to:

• -Recognize data needs, sources and presentation tools for characterizing the geologic framework or hydrologic system of a groundwater/environmental project area; and
• -Apply these techniques to formulate a sound conceptual hydrogeologic model in a wide range of typical groundwater/environmental cases.

This course is presented by Dr. William J. Stone, who has more than 30 years of experience in various aspects of hydroscience and is the author of “Hydrogeology in Practice: A Guide to Characterizing Ground-Water Systems.”

The groundwater geochemistry course, taught by Bill Deutsch and Dr. Patrick Longmire, who have several decades of experience between them, is targeted to geologists, engineers, project manager, regulators and those environmental professionals involved in risk assessment and remediation.

Course attendees will receive a thorough understanding of the principles of geochemistry, an important step in completing a successful site assessment or remediation project. Among other aspects, they will learn about:

• -The relationship of geochemical reactions to groundwater quality, aquifer material and associated contamination;
• -Impacts of geochemical conditions on remediation efforts; and
• -Requirements for data collection and presentation methods.