Contaminant Transport Through Aquitards

Technical Guidance for Aquitard Assessment

Publication year: 2006
Number of pages: 144
Publisher: The Water Research Foundation (formerly AwwaRF)

A GW-Project preserved book

Authors:
K.R. Bradbury – Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, USA
M.B. Gotkowitz – Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, USA
D.J. Hart – Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, USA
T.T. Eaton – Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey, USA
J.A. Cherry – University of Waterloo, Canada
B.L. Parker – University of Waterloo, Canada
M.A. Borchardt – Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation, USA

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Contaminant Transport Through Aquitards: Technical Guidance for Aquitard Assessment

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Book Description

This is Part Two of a two-volume set that provides information for groundwater managers to gain an understanding of aquitards.

The book set provides technical guidance for evaluating aquitard integrity and predicting chemical and microbial transport to underlying aquifers. Aquifers and aquitards make up groundwater flow systems, with aquitards having much lower permeability than aquifers. Aquitards help protect underlying aquifers, and the water-supply wells completed in them, from contamination. The degree of this protection depends on many factors, including contaminant type, hydrogeologic setting, flow system dynamics, and local effects of groundwater pumping. Determination of aquitard integrity is an important aspect of groundwater management because without it, predictions of future groundwater quality cannot be reliable. This study developed two volumes that together meet The Water Research Foundation’s (formerly AwwaRF) objectives of understanding how aquitards affect contamination susceptibility.

Part One is Contaminant Transport Through Aquitards: A State of the Science Review. It summarizes the current knowledge of aquitard science.

Part Two is Contaminant Transport Through Aquitards: Technical Guidance for Aquitard Assessment. It provides guidance concerning investigations of aquitard integrity and summarizes specific technical methodologies.

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

1.2 Purpose

1.3 How to use This Document

1.4 Method of Investigation

1.5 Nature and Role of Conceptual Models

CHAPTER 2: FACTORS IN AQUITARD VULNERABILITY

2.1 Types of Aquitards

2.2 Susceptibility of Regional Aquifers and Wells

2.3 Transport Pathways

2.4 Contaminant Types

CHAPTER 3: STRATIGRAPHY AND LITHOLOGY: DETERMINING THE PRESENCE AND EXTENT OF AQUITARDS

3.1 Regional Mapping of Aquitards with Lithologic Logs

3.2 Regional Mapping of Aquitards with Geophysical Methods

3.3 Time Domain Electromagnetics, an Example of Surface Geophysics

3.4 Correlation of borehole geophysical logs

CHAPTER 4: DRILLING METHODS IN AQUITARD STUDIES

4.1 Hollow Stem Auger Drilling

4.2 Direct Push Drilling

4,3 Rock Coring

4.4 Rotosonic Drilling

4.5 Rotary Drilling

CHAPTER 5: OBSERVATIONS OF BOREHOLES AND CORE

5.1 Temporary Sealing of Boreholes in Lithified Environments

5.2 Borehole Visualization Techniques

5.3 Natural Gamma Logging

5.4 Normal Resistivity Logging

5.5 Borehole Caliper Logging

5.6 X-Radiography for Identification of Structure in Cores

5.7 Core-Scale Measurements of Physical Properties

CHAPTER 6: TESTING AND SAMPLING FROM OPEN BOREHOLES

6.1 Packer Testing in Boreholes

6.2 Groundwater Sampling Using Straddle Packers

6.3 Fluid Temperature and Electrical Conductivity Logs

6.4 Borehole Flowmeter Logs

CHAPTER 7: BOREHOLE INSTRUMENTATION

7.1 Standpipe Piezometers

7.2 Buried Transducers

7.3 Depth-Discrete Multilevel Monitoring Systems

CHAPTER 8: ESTIMATING THE HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY OF AQUITARDS

8.1 Estimating Vertical Hydraulic Conductivity from a Mapped Cone of Depression

8.2 Hydraulic Conductivity Measurement Using Slug Tests

8.3 Analysis of Data Obtained from Straddle Packers

8.4 Pumping Tests for Aquitard Assessment

8.5 Hydraulic Conductivity Estimates from Numerical Model Calibration

CHAPTER 9: ASSESSING CONTAMINANT TRANSPORT THROUGH AQUITARDS

9.1 Simple Analytical Calculation of Vertical Flow Through an Aquitard

9.2 Estimates Based on Numerical Flow and Transport Models

9.3 Chemical Analysis of Cores

9.4 Environmental Isotope Distributions in Groundwater

9.5 Tritium

9.6 Oxygen-18 and Deuterium

9.7 Dissolved Inorganic Chemical Species and Parameters

9.8 Waterborne Virus Testing

9.9 Assessment of DNAPL Pathways

CHAPTER 10: INTEGRATING INFORMATION AT REGIONAL AND SITE SCALES - A FRAMEWORK FOR UTILITY MANAGERS