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Abstract. Saturated groundwater flow and tracer experiments using fluorescent dye, chloride, and the herbicides mecoprop and simazine were carried out in the laboratory using three large-diameter (0.5 m) undisturbed columns of fractured clayey till. Hydraulic conductivity of the columns ranged from 10 -s m/s in the shallowest column (1 rn depth) to 10 -7 m/s in the deepest column (4 rn depth) and were similar to field-measured values for these deposits. Results of the tracer experiments are consistent with a conceptual model of advective transport along the fractures combined with diffusion into the finegrained matrix between the fractures. Arrival of the chloride tracer in the effluent was highly retarded relative to fracture flow velocities calculated on the basis of the cubic law and measured values of fracture spacing and hydraulic conductivity. The herbicides were more strongly retarded than the chloride at low flow rates, but at higher flow rates the herbicides arrived with the chloride, indicating the influence of nonequilibrium sorption of the herbicides to fracture walls and the matrix solids. The columns were dismantled following the tracer experiments and mapping under UV light showed that nearly all of the visible, weathered fractures (and the few root holes in the case of the shallowest sample) were active transport pathways, with the dye appearing mainly on the fracture surfaces and as a "rim" in the adjacent matrix. Concentration profiles measured perpendicular to the fracture surfaces showed that the herbicides had also moved into the matrix, apparently by diffusion. Simulations of solute transport with a discrete fracture flow/matrix diffusion model showed that the simulations could be "fit" to the data if all of the visible fractures were hydraulically active, but could not be fit if all or most of the flow was channelled through just the primary fractures (defined by prominent oxidation stains). Simulations with an equivalent porous media (EPM) model could not fit the data using the measured total porosity as the effective porosity. The simulations could likely be fit with a smaller value of effective porosity, but this would limit applicability to field situations because fitted effective porosity is expected to change with physical scale and residence time of the solute in the soil.

1] This study investigates vertical flow and pesticide transport along fractures in water saturated unoxidized clayey till. From two experimental fields, each 40 m 2 , 96% and 98%, respectively, of total vertical flow was conducted along fractures in the till, while the remaining 2-4% of flow occurred in the clay matrix at very slow flow rate. An applied dye tracer was observed only along 10-26% of the total fracture length measured on the horizontal surface of the experimental fields. In vertical sections the dyed fracture portions constituted root channels, which penetrated the till vertically along the fractures into the local aquifer at 5 m depth. No dye tracer was observed in the fractures without root channels or in the unfractured clay matrix, suggesting that root growth along the fracture surfaces was the principal agent of fracture aperture enhancement. Using hydraulic fracture aperture values determined from large undisturbed column (LUC) collected from one of the experimental fields, it was estimated that 94% of flow in the fractures was conducted along the fracture root channels, while only 6% of flow was conducted along the fracture sections without root channels. For natural vertical hydraulic gradients (0.8-2.3 at the site), flow rates of 0.8-2 km/d were determined for a fracture root channel, while fracture sections without root channels revealed flow rates of 9-22 m/ d. Corresponding flow rates in the unfractured matrix were 7-19 mm/yr. For infiltrated bromide (nonreactive tracer) and mobile pesticides mecoprop (MCPP) and metsulfuron, very rapid migration (0.28-0.5 m/d) and high relative breakthrough concentrations (30-60%) into the aquifer were observed to occur along the fracture root channels using a constant hydraulic gradient of 1. Only traces were measured from infiltration of the strongly sorbed pesticide prochloraz. The concentrations of the bromide and pesticides in the monitoring wells were modeled with a discrete fracture matrix diffusion (DFDM) model coupled with a single porosity model (SP) for the till and aquifer, respectively. Using effective fracture spacings and mean fracture apertures for the fracture channel sections as modeling input parameters for the till, the concentrations observed in the wells of the aquifer could be reasonably approximated.