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Results for “Journal of Hydrologic Engineering”

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75 records · Page 5Linked to original sources
USGS2003

The saturated zone at Yucca Mountain: An overview of the characterization and assessment of the saturated zone as a barrier to potential radionuclide migration

The US Department of Energy is pursuing Yucca Mountain, Nevada, for the development of a geologic repository for the disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, if the repository is able to meet applicable radiation protection standards established by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Effective performance of such a repository would rely on a number of natural and engineered barriers to isolate radioactive waste from the accessible environment. Groundwater beneath Yucca Mountain is the primary medium through which most radionuclides might move away from the potential repository. The saturated zone (SZ) system is expected to act as a natural barrier to this possible movement of radionuclides both by delaying their transport and by reducing their concentration before they reach the accessible environment. Information obtained from Yucca Mountain Site Characterization Project activities is used to estimate groundwater flow rates through the site-scale SZ flow and transport model area and to constrain general conceptual models of groundwater flow in the site-scale area. The site-scale conceptual model is a synthesis of what is known about flow and transport processes at the scale required for total system performance assessment of the site. This knowledge builds on and is consistent with knowledge that has accumulated at the regional scale but is more detailed because more data are available at the site-scale level. The mathematical basis of the site-scale model and the associated numerical approaches are designed to assist in quantifying the uncertainty in the permeability of rocks in the geologic framework model and to represent accurately the flow and transport processes included in the site-scale conceptual model. Confidence in the results of the mathematical model was obtained by comparing calculated to observed hydraulic heads, estimated to measured permeabilities, and lateral flow rates calculated by the site-scale model to those calculated by the regional-scale flow model. In addition, it was confirmed that the flow paths leaving the region of the potential repository are consistent with those inferred from gradients of measured head and those independently inferred from water-chemistry data. The general approach of the site-scale SZ flow and transport model analysis is to calculate unit breakthrough curves for radionuclides at the interface between the SZ and the biosphere using the three-dimensional site-scale SZ flow and transport model. Uncertainties are explicitly incorporated into the site-scale SZ flow and transport abstractions through key parameters and conceptual models. ?? 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Journal of Contaminant Hydrology↗
USGS2014

High-resolution delineation of chlorinated volatile organic compounds in a dipping, fractured mudstone: depth- and strata-dependent spatial variability from rock-core sampling

Synthesis of rock-core sampling and chlorinated volatile organic compound (CVOC) analysis at five coreholes, with hydraulic and water-quality monitoring and a detailed hydrogeologic framework, was used to characterize the fine-scale distribution of CVOCs in dipping, fractured mudstones of the Lockatong Formation of Triassic age, of the Newark Basin in West Trenton, New Jersey. From these results, a refined conceptual model for more than 55 years of migration of CVOCs and depth- and strata-dependent rock-matrix contamination was developed. Industrial use of trichloroethene (TCE) at the former Naval Air Warfare Center (NAWC) from 1953 to 1995 resulted in dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) TCE and dissolved TCE and related breakdown products, including other CVOCs, in underlying mudstones. Shallow highly weathered and fractured strata overlie unweathered, gently dipping, fractured strata that become progressively less fractured with depth. The unweathered lithology includes black highly fractured (fissile) carbon-rich strata, gray mildly fractured thinly layered (laminated) strata, and light-gray weakly fractured massive strata. CVOC concentrations in water samples pumped from the shallow weathered and highly fractured strata remain elevated near residual DNAPL TCE, but dilution by uncontaminated recharge, and other natural and engineered attenuation processes, have substantially reduced concentrations along flow paths removed from sources and residual DNAPL. CVOCs also were detected in most rock-core samples in source areas in shallow wells. In many locations, lower aqueous concentrations, compared to rock core concentrations, suggest that CVOCs are presently back-diffusing from the rock matrix. Below the weathered and highly fractured strata, and to depths of at least 50 meters (m), groundwater flow and contaminant transport is primarily in bedding-plane-oriented fractures in thin fissile high-carbon strata, and in fractured, laminated strata of the gently dipping mudstones. Despite more than 18 years of pump and treat (P&T) remediation, and natural attenuation processes, CVOC concentrations in aqueous samples pumped from these deeper strata remain elevated in isolated intervals. DNAPL was detected in one borehole during coring at a depth of 27 m. In contrast to core samples from the weathered zone, concentrations in core samples from deeper unweathered and unfractured strata are typically below detection. However, high CVOC concentrations were found in isolated samples from fissile black carbon-rich strata and fractured gray laminated strata. Aqueous-phase concentrations were correspondingly high in samples pumped from these strata via short-interval wells or packer-isolated zones in long boreholes. A refined conceptual site model considers that prior to P&T remediation groundwater flow was primarily subhorizontal in the higher-permeability near surface strata, and the bulk of contaminant mass was shallow. CVOCs diffused into these fractured and weathered mudstones. DNAPL and high concentrations of CVOCs migrated slowly down in deeper unweathered strata, primarily along isolated dipping bedding-plane fractures. After P&T began in 1995, using wells open to both shallow and deep strata, downward transport of dissolved CVOCs accelerated. Diffusion of TCE and other CVOCs from deeper fractures penetrated only a few centimeters into the unweathered rock matrix, likely due to sorption of CVOCs on rock organic carbon. Remediation in the deep, unweathered strata may benefit from the relatively limited migration of CVOCs into the rock matrix. Synthesis of rock core sampling from closely spaced boreholes with geophysical logging and hydraulic testing improves understanding of the controls on CVOC delineation and informs remediation design and monitoring.

New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania↗
USGS1998

An improved technique for modeling initial reservoir hydrocarbon saturation distributions: Applications in Illinois (USA) aux vases oil reservoirs

An improved technique for modeling the initial reservoir hydrocarbon saturation distributions is presented. In contrast to the Leverett J-function approach, this methodology (hereby termed flow-unit-derived initial oil saturation or FUSOI) determines the distributions of the initial oil saturations from a measure of the mean hydraulic radius, referred to as the flow zone indicator (FZI). FZI is derived from porosity and permeability data. In the FUSOI approach, capillary pressure parameters, S(wir), P(d), and ??, derived from the Brooks and Corey (1966) model [Brooks, R.H., Corey, A.T., 1966. Hydraulic properties of porous media, Hydrology Papers, Colorado State Univ., Ft. Collins, No. 3, March.], are correlated to the FZI. Subsequent applications of these parameters then permit the computation of improved hydrocarbon saturations as functions of FZI and height above the free water level (FWL). This technique has been successfully applied in the Mississippian Aux Vases Sandstone reservoirs of the Illinois Basin (USA). The Aux Vases Zeigler field (Franklin County, IL, USA) was selected for a field-wide validation of this FUSOI approach because of the availability of published studies. With the initial oil saturations determined on a depth-by-depth basis in cored wells, it was possible to geostatistically determine the three-dimensional (3-D) distributions of initial oil saturations in the Zeigler field. The original oil-in-place (OOIP), computed from the detailed initialization of the 3-D reservoir simulation model of the Zeigler field, was found to be within 5.6% of the result from a rigorous material balance method.An improved technique for modeling the initial reservoir hydrocarbon saturation distributions is presented. In contrast to the Leverett J-function approach, this methodology (hereby termed flow-unit-derived initial oil saturation or FUSOI) determines the distributions of the initial oil saturations from a measure of the mean hydraulic radius, referred to as the flow zone indicator (FZI). FZI is derived from porosity and permeability data. In the FUSOI approach, capillary pressure parameters, Swir, Pd, and ??, derived from the Brooks and Corey (1966) model, are correlated to the FZI. Subsequent applications of these parameters then permit the computation of improved hydrocarbon saturations as functions of FZI and height above the free water level (FWL). This technique has been successfully applied in the Mississippian Aux Vases Sandstone reservoirs of the Illinois Basin (USA). The Aux Vases Zeigler field (Franklin County, IL, USA) was selected for a field-wide validation of this FUSOI approach because of the availability of published studies. With the initial oil saturations determined on a depth-by-depth basis in cored wells, it was possible to geostatistically determine the three-dimensional (3-D) distributions of initial oil saturations in the Zeigler field. The original oil-in-place (OOIP), computed from the detailed initialization of the 3-D reservoir simulation model of the Zeigler field, was found to be within 5.6% of the result from a rigorous material balance method.

Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering↗