Groundwater Tracer Tests Research Articles

Hydrogeological studies for radiological monitoring of shallow groundwater in the Eurex plant of Saluggia (Vercelli, Italy)

In 2004, contaminated water was found inside the safety interspace around the spent fuel pool; therefore, an ample monitoring programme of the structure, soils and shallow groundwater was started in order to detect any radioactive leakage into the environment. A first group of piezometers was installed. In the one nearest to the pool, an anomalous activity of (90)Sr ( approximately 10(-2) Bq l(-1)) was found, calling for the following actions: gradual enlarging of the monitoring network, implementation of in situ permeability tests and groundwater tracer test and study of groundwater mobility of the main radionuclides contained in the pool water: (90)Sr, (137)Cs, (241)Am and (239/240)Pu. Because (90)Sr is the only artificial radionuclide detected in groundwater, this study mainly focused on this one. All the investigations demonstrated that (90)Sr coming from the pool is not detectable any longer just some tens of metres from the building and allow the correlation of (90)Sr concentration to flow and water-table fluctuations. Moreover, such a wide mass of hydrogeological and radiological data allows the estimation of an environmental value for environmental radiological significance.

Self‐Organized Permeability in Carbonate Aquifers

Advances over the past 40 years have resulted in a clear understanding of how dissolution processes in carbonate rocks enhance aquifer permeability. Laboratory experiments on dissolution rates of calcite and dolomite have established that there is a precipitous drop in dissolution rates as chemical equilibrium is approached. These results have been incorporated into numerical models, simulating the effects of dissolution over time and showing that it occurs along the entire length of pathways through carbonate aquifers. The pathways become enlarged and integrated over time, forming self-organized networks of channels that typically have apertures in the millimeter to centimeter range. The networks discharge at point-located springs. Recharge type is an important factor in determining channel size and distribution, resulting in a range of aquifer types, and this is well demonstrated by examples from England. Most carbonate aquifers have a large number of small channels, but in some cases large channels (i.e., enterable caves) can also develop. Rapid velocities found in ground water tracer tests, the high incidence of large-magnitude springs, and frequent microbial contamination of wells all support the model of self-organized channel development. A large majority of carbonate aquifers have such channel networks, where ground water velocities often exceed 100 m/d.

Estimation of True Dispersivity in Field-Scale Permeable Media

Summary Simulation studies (Solano et al.1; Stalkup2) show that oil recovery for enriched gas drives depends on the amount of dispersion in reservoir media, but the value of dispersion, expressed as dispersivity, is unknown at the field scale. This work focuses on three types of dispersion in permeable media to obtain realistic estimates of dispersive mixing at the field scale. The dispersivity from single-well tracer tests (SWTTs), also known as echo dispersivity, is dispersivity that is unaffected by fluid flow direction. Layering in permeable media tends to increase the dispersivity observed in well-to-well tracer tests, also known as transmission dispersivity, but should not affect the echo dispersivity. We analyzed a collection of SWTT data to estimate echo dis-persivity at the SWTT scale. The estimated echo dispersivities closely match a published trend with length in dispersivities obtained from groundwater tracer tests. This unexpected result—it was thought that transmission dispersivity should be greater than echo dispersivity—is analyzed with numerical simulation. Another type of dispersive mixing is local dispersivity, or the mixing observed at a point as tracer flows past. Numerical simulation results show that the local dispersivity is always less than the transmission dispersivity and greater than the echo dispersivity. It is closer to one limit or the other depending on the amount and type of heterogeneity, the autocorrelation structure of the medium's permeability, and the lateral (vertical) permeability. The agreement between the SWTT echo dispersivities and the field trend suggests that the field data are measuring local dispersivities. All dispersivities appear to grow with length.

First-passage-time transfer functions for groundwater tracer tests conducted in radially convergent flow

Forced-gradient groundwater tracer tests may be conducted using a variety of hydraulic schemes, so it is useful to have simple semi-analytic models available that can examine various injection/withdrawal scenarios. Models for radially convergent tracer tests are formulated here as transfer functions, which allow complex tracer test designs to be simulated by a series of simple mathematical expressions. These mathematical expressions are given in Laplace space, so that transfer functions may be placed in series by simple multiplication. Predicted breakthrough is found by numerically inverting the composite transfer function to the time-domain, using traditional computer programs or commercial mathematical software. Transport is assumed to be dictated by a radially convergent or uniform flow field, and is based upon an exact first-passage-time solution of the backward Fokker–Planck equation. These methods are demonstrated by simulating a weak-dipole tracer test conducted in a fractured granite formation, where mixing in the injection borehole is non-ideal.

Solute dilution at the Borden and Cape Cod groundwater tracer tests

This study presents an analysis of the rate of dilution of a conservative nonreactive tracer in two well‐known field experiments: The Borden (Ontario, Canada) experiment and the Cape Cod (Massachusetts) experiment. In evaluating the dilution of injected sodium bromide, in addition to computing the second spatial moments, we have used the dilution index and the reactor ratio. The dilution index is a measure of the formation volume occupied by the solute plume, and the reactor ratio is a shape factor, which measures how stretched and deformed the plume is. Unlike the second moments, which may go up or down during an experiment, the dilution index should increase monotonically. The results for both plumes were quite similar. After an initial period the dilution index increased linearly with time, which is macroscopically equivalent to transport in two‐dimensional uniform flow. The reactor ratio was relatively constant during the period of the experiments. Their values, about 0.72 for the Borden test and 0.63 for the Cape Cod test, indicate that the Cape Cod plume was more stretched and deformed than the Borden plume. The maximum concentration, which is an alternative to the dilution index for quantifying dilution, was found to be more erratic and more susceptible to sampling error.

Natural degradation rates of BTEX compounds and naphthalene in a sulphate reducing groundwater environment

Abstract Field and laboratory evidence show natural degradation of toluene, ethylbenzene, m-, p- and o-xylenes, 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene and naphthalene in sulphate reducing groundwater conditions of the Bassendean Sands in the Perth basin, Western Australia. Natural degradation rates were obtained from a groundwater tracer test with deuterated organic compounds injected into a dissolved hydrocarbon plume, down-gradient of a leaking underground storage tank at an urban service station. These were compared with similar data obtained from modelling of the whole contaminant plume itself and also with data obtained from large-scale laboratory column experiments with groundwater spiked with BTEX compounds. Toluene degradation rate was 200 to 500 times higher in the anaerobic laboratory columns than in the field. Degradation rates in the tracer test compared well with model-derived field estimates.