The main focus of this project is to address the travel time issue. Using your model, you should be answering the question of whether or not TCE could have traveled from the W.R. Grace or Beatrice facility to wells G&H within the time frame addressed by the court trial. Consider the following comment regarding the jury instructions from Judge Skinner:
"First: Had the plaintiffs established by a preponderance of the evidence that any of the following chemicals - TCE, perc, adn 1,2 transdichloroethylene - were disposed on the Beatrice land after August 27, 1968 (in the case of W.R. Grace, after October 1, 1964, and the date Well G had opened), and had these chemicals substantially contributed to the contamination of the wells before May 22, 1979? If the answer should be yes for one or more of the chemicals, then the second question: What, according to a preponderance of the evidence, was the earliest date - both month and year - at which each of these chemicals had substantially contributed to the contamination of the wells? And then: Had this happened because of the defendants' failure to fulfill any duty of care to the plaintiffs? Finally, if the jurors answered yes to that question, then this puzzler: What, according to a preponderance of the evidence, was the earliest time (again, both the month and year) at which the substantial contribution referred to in question 3 was caused by the negligent conduct of this defendant?" (Harr, 1995)
Note that there is a specific time range mentioned by the judge. Refer to this time range as you discuss the results of your particle tracking analysis. The max travel time for the W.R. Grace case is about 14.5 years. For Beatrice it would be about 10.5 years. You may argue for applying a shorter time frame that this depending on your point of view. For example, these numbers represent the worst case scenario (the TCE was released at the earliest possible date).