The contamination of groundwater by degradation of buried corpses in cemeteries appears as a common reality in Brazil and worldwide. In the Fortaleza (CE), the Bom Jardim cemetery is a typical example of a contamination threat. The risk is mainly due to the fact that often the population utilizes the groundwater for different purposes. In this investigation, we analyzed the possibility of the Bom Jardim cemetery to contribute to microbiological contamination in the local aquifer. The software PMWIN PRO® was utilized to simulate the groundwater flow and to evaluate the transport of pathogenic microorganisms presented in a pollution plume. The numerical simulation of groundwater was achieved in steady state and was admitted the advective transport of pathogenic microorganisms. The results showed a slight possibility of microbiological contamination to exceed the boundaries of the cemetery.
groundwater; computational modelling; contamination plume; cemeteries