Aquifer cleanup efforts at contaminated sites frequently involve operation of a system of extraction wells. It has been found that contaminant load discharged by extraction wells typically declines with time, asymptotically approaching a residual level. Such behavior could be due to rate-limited desorption of an organic contaminant from aquifer solids. An analytical model is presented which accounts for rate-limited desorption of an organic solute during cleanup of a contaminated site. Model equations are presented which describe transport of a sorbing contaminant in a converging radial flow field, with sorption described by (I) equilibrium, (2) first-order rate, and {,3) Fickian diffusion expressions. The model equations are solved in the Laplace domain and numerically inverted to simulate contaminant concentrations at an extraction well. A Laplace domain solution for the total contaminant mass remaining in the aquifer is also derived. It is shown that rate-limited sorption can have a significant impact upon aquifer remediation. Approximate equivalence among the various rate-limited models is also demonstrated. INTRODUCTION It has been theoretically and experimentally shown that rate-limited sorption/desorption can have a profound effect upon the transport of sorbing organic contaminants [van Genuchten and Wierenga, 1976; Nkedi-Kizza et al., 1982; Goltz and Roberts, 1988; Ball, 1989: Brusseau and Rao, 1989]. The advection/dispersion equation, which has been traditionally used to model contaminant transport, uses a retardation factor to account for sorption, thereby implicitly assuming local equilibrium between contaminant in the sorbed and aqueous phases [Bear, 1972]. By making this assumption, the possibly large effects of rate-limited sorption/desorption are not considered. Aquifer cleanup efforts at contaminated sites frequently involve operation of a system of extraction wells [Valocchi, 1986; Keel.),, et al., 1987; Maci•ay and Cherr3.,, 1989; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 1989]. It has been found that contaminant load discharged by extraction wells typically declines with time, asymptotically approaching a residual level [Keely et al., 1987; Hall, 1989; Mackay and Cherr3.,, 1989; U.S. EPA, 1989]. Such behavior could be due to rate-limited desorption of an organic contaminant from aquifer solids [Keely et al., 1987; Hall, 1989; Mackay and Cherr3.,, 1989]. In this paper, an analytical model is presented which accounts for rate-limited desorption of an organic solute during cleanup of a contaminated site. By comparing model simulations with simulations of a model which assumes local e.quilibrium between contaminant in the sorbed and aqueous phases, the effects of rate-limited desorption upon aquifer cleanup (where cleanup is defined as the This paper is not subject to U.S. copyright. Published in 1991 by the American Geophysical Union. Paper number 90WR02760. attainment of a specified contaminant concentration) may be assessed. BACKGROUND Various workers have presented models describing diverging...