65 research outputs found
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Sensitivity analysis of time-step in modeling river and aquifer interaction
Center for Water and the Environmen
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Investigation of groundwater recirculation for the removal of RDX from the Pantex Plant perched aquifer
The Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas, is a US Department of Energy (DOE) facility that has been in operation since 1942. Past and present operations at Pantex include the creation of chemical high explosives components for nuclear weapons and assembly and disassembly of nuclear weapons. The Pantex Plant is underlain by the Ogallala aquifer, which in this area, consists of the main water-bearing unit and a perched water zone. These are separated by a fine-grained zone of low permeability. Multiple contaminant plumes containing high explosive (HE) compounds have been detected in the perched aquifer beneath the plant. The occurrence of these contaminants is the result of past waste disposal practices at the facility. RDX is an HE compound, which has been detected in the groundwater of the perched aquifer at significant concentrations. A pilot-scale, dual-phase extraction treatment system has been installed at one location at the plant, east of Zone 12, to test the effectiveness of such a system on the removal of these contaminants from the subsurface. A tracer test using a conservative tracer, bromide (Br), was conducted at the treatment site in 1996. In addition to the bromide, RDX and water elevations in the aquifer were monitored. Using data from the tracer test and other relevant data from the investigations at Pantex, flow and contaminant transport in the perched aquifer were simulated with groundwater models. The flow was modeled using MODFLOW and the transport of contaminants in the aqueous phase was modeled using MT3D. Modeling the perched aquifer had been conducted to characterize the flow in the perched aquifer; estimate RDX retardation in the perched aquifer; and evaluate the use of groundwater re-circulation to enhance the extraction of RDX from the perched aquifer
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Environmental restoration at the Pantex Plant. Quarterly progress report, April 12, 1995--June 30, 1995
This report summarizes the Work Plans for activities associated with Environmental Restoration of the perched aquifer and contaminated soils at the Pantex Plant. The Higher Education Consortium/Pantex Research Laboratory is participating in the Consortium Grant to evaluate subsurface remediation alternatives for the perched aquifer at the Pantex Plant. Research activities will develop site characterization data and evaluate remediation alternatives for the perched aquifer and the overlying vadose zone. The work plans cover research activities for the remainder of FY95, and proposed activities for FY96 and thereafter. A separate document will present more detailed plans for FY96 activities and budget requirements
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A spatial environmental risk assessment methodology for risk-based decision making at large, complex facilities
Center for Research in Water Resource
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Ambient current effects on vertical selective flow withdrawal in a two layer reservoir system
Final Project Report: OWRR Project No. A-025-OR
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A review and evaluation of literature pertaining to the quantity and control of pollution from highway runoff and construction
Center for Research in Water Resource
The hydrogeologic information in cross-borehole complex conductivity data from an unconsolidated conglomeratic sedimentary aquifer
Accurate estimation of the hydrological properties of near-surface aquifers is important because these properties strongly influence groundwater flow and solute transport. Laboratory-based investigations have indicated that induced polarization (IP) properties of porous media may be linked, through either semiempirical or fully mechanistic models, to hydrological properties including hydraulic conductivity. Therefore, there is a need for field assessments of the value of IP measurements in providing insights into the hydrological properties of aquifers. A cross-borehole IP survey was carried out at the Boise Hydrogeophysical Research Site (BHRS), an unconsolidated fluvial aquifer that has previously been well-studied with a variety of geophysical and hydrogeologic techniques. High-quality IP measurements were inverted, with careful consideration of the data error structure, to provide a 3D distribution of complex electrical conductivity values. The inverted distribution was further simplified using kk-means cluster analysis to divide the inverted volume into discrete zones with horizontal layering. Identified layers based on complex electrical conductivity inversions are in broad agreement with stratigraphic units identified in previous studies at the site. Although mostly subtle variations in the phase angle are recovered through inversion of field data, greater contrasts in the IP data are evident at some unit boundaries. However, in coarse-grained aquifers, such as the BHRS, the discrimination of mildly contrasting lithologic units and associated changes in hydraulic conductivity of one or two orders of magnitude are unlikely to be achieved through field IP surveys. Despite the difficulty of differentiating subtle differences between all units, overall estimates of hydraulic conductivity purely from our field IP data are typically within an order of magnitude of independently measured values
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