David Genereux

Bio

Since 2000 I have been on the faculty at N.C. State University, where I carry out research and teaching in hydrogeology. Prior to that I was on the faculty at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, where I held joint appointments between the Department of Geology and two research centers: the Drinking Water Research Center and the Southeast Environmental Research Center. During 2009-2014 I was the Associate Director for Research in the Water Resources Research Institute of the University of North Carolina, and during 2016-2018 served on the board of directors of the Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc. (CUAHSI), including a year as chair of the board in 2017.  I’ve been an associate editor for scientific journals (Water Resources Research and the Journal of Contaminant Hydrology), served on grant program panels at the National Science Foundation (NSF), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Department of Agriculture (USDA), and served as both a member and chair of the Water Quality Technical Committee of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

My research focuses on hydrogeology and the coupled fluxes of water and chemicals at the interface between groundwater and surface water, including agricultural nutrients, VOCs, and more recently GenX and related PFAS. Gas exchange at stream surfaces is also a focus area.  This work has been funded by NSF, USDA, DOE, the NC Collaboratory, and other sources, and most of it is accomplished through collaborative efforts with colleagues in related areas of engineering and geoscience. Most of my projects center around field and lab measurements, with use of models to tackle some questions, and the work has included a range of field settings: the Everglades, forested watersheds in Massachusetts and Tennessee, tropical rainforest in Costa Rica, the Nebraska Sand Hills, and agricultural and urban watersheds and groundwater systems in North Carolina.

GRE general test is recommended for applicants in hydrogeology

Selected Recent Publications (*student author  †post-doc author)

Jensen, C.R.*, D.P. Genereux, D.K. Solomon, D.R.U. Knappe, and T.E. Gilmore. 2024.  Forecasting and hindcasting PFAS concentrations in groundwater discharging to streams near a PFAS production facility.  Environmental Science & Technology, https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.4c06697

VanDerwerker, T.J.*, D.R.U. Knappe, D.P. Genereux. 2024. Adapting to PFAS contamination of private drinking water wells near a PFAS production facility in the US Atlantic Coastal Plain of North Carolina. Water Environment Research, 96(8), e11091. https://doi.org/10.1002/wer.11091

Humphrey, C.E.*, D.K Solomon, T.E. Gilmore, M.R. MacNamara*, D.P. Genereux, A.R. Mittelstet, C. Zeyrek*, V.A. Zlotnik, C.R. Jensen*. 2024. Spatial variation in transit time distributions of groundwater discharge to a stream overlying the Northern High Plains Aquifer, Nebraska, USA.  Water Resources Research, 60, e2022WR034410. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022WR034410.

Rudd*, H., A. Neal, D.P. Genereux, D. Shea, E.G. Nichols. 2023. Vulnerability of wells in unconfined and confined aquifers to modern contamination from flood events. Science of the Total Environment, 901, 165729. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.165729

Jensen, C.R.*, D.P. Genereux, T.E. Gilmore, D.K. Solomon. 2023. Modified tracer gas injection for measuring stream gas exchange velocity in the presence of significant temperature variation. Water Resources Research, 59, e2023WR034495. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023WR034495

Nickels*, J.L., D.P. Genereux, D.R.U. Knappe. 2023. Improved Darcian streambed measurements to quantify flux and mass discharge of volatile organic compounds from a contaminated aquifer to an urban stream. Journal of Contaminant Hydrology, 253, 104124, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconhyd.2022.104124

Zeyrek*, C., A. Mittelstet, T.E. Gilmore, V.A. Zlotnik, D.K. Solomon, D.P. Genereux, C.E. Humphrey*, N. Shrestha*. 2023. Modeling groundwater transit time distributions and means across a Nebraska watershed: effects of heterogeneity in the aquifer, riverbed, and recharge parameters.  Journal of Hydrology, 617, 128891, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2022.128891

Marzolf, N.S.*, G.E. Small, D. Oviedo-Vargas, C.N. Ganong, J.H. Duff, A. Ramírez, C.M. Pringle, D.P. Genereux, M. Ardón. 2022. Partitioning inorganic carbon fluxes from paired O₂ – CO₂ gas measurements in a neotropical headwater stream, Costa Rica. Biogeochemistry, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-022-00954-4

Humphrey, C.E.*, D.K. Solomon, D.P. Genereux, T.E. Gilmore, A.R. Mittelstet, V.A. Zlotnik, C. Zeyrek*, C.R. Jensen*, M.R. MacNamara*. 2022. Using automated seepage meters to quantify the spatial variability and net flux of groundwater to a stream.  Water Resources Research, 58, e2021WR030711, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021WR030711

Pétré^†, M.-A., K.R. Salk, H.M. Stapleton, P.L. Ferguson, G. Tait, D.R. Obenour, D.R.U. Knappe, D.P. Genereux. 2022. Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in river discharge: modeling loads upstream and downstream of a PFAS manufacturing plant in the Cape Fear watershed, North Carolina. Science of the Total Environment, volume 831, 154763, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154763

Genereux, D.P. 2022. Addendum to “Quantifying uncertainty in tracer-based hydrograph separations” for three-component mixing problems. Water Resources Research, volume 58, e2022WR031987, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022WR031987

Jensen, C.R.*, D.P. Genereux, T.E. Gilmore, D.K. Solomon, A.R. Mittelstet, C.E. Humphrey*, M.R. MacNamara*, C. Zeyrek*, V. Zlotnik. 2022. Estimating groundwater mean transit time from SF₆ in stream water: field example and planning metrics for a reach mass-balance approach.  Hydrogeology Journal, 30: 479–494. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10040-021-02435-8

Pétré^†, M.-A., D.P. Genereux, L. Koropeckyj-Cox*, D.R.U. Knappe, S. Duboscq*, T.E. Gilmore, Z. Hopkins*. 2021. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) transport from groundwater to streams near a PFAS manufacturing facility in North Carolina, USA.  Environmental Science & Technology, 55(9): 5848-5856, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c07978