Hydrological and meteorological data for an unsaturated-zone study area near the Radioactive Waste Management Complex, Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Idaho, 1988 and 1989

Abstract

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Laboratory and field hydrologic characterization of the shallow subsurface at an Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory waste-disposal site

“…While this method normally uses air-dry soil, the moisture content at the time of sampling was low enough (ranging from 14 to 30 percent before drying that occurred during handling) that the sieve analysis could be carried out in the field. Pittman ( ,1995 describes the installation of neutron access holes at the site and presents water content data obtained over time with a neutron-scattering probe. We have used these recorded data and have continued measuring in the same and additional neutron access holes.…”

Hydraulic and Geochemical Framework of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory Vadose Zone

“…Often the tracers used in such studies preexist in the environment from natural or artificial causes (e.g., Cecil et al, 1992; Busenberg et al, 2001; 1993). Measurements of water content and matric pressure with time (e.g., Davis and Pittman, 1990; Pittman, 1989; Pittman, 1995; Perkins, 2000; and McElroy and Hubbell, 2003) provide data for calculation of fluxes, and through changes with time may indicate fluxes directly. The dynamics of variably saturated conditions (e.g., perching, mounding of water on the aquifer, fluctuation of measured water levels) can suggest vadose zone flow rates and directions (e.g., Orr, 1999).…”

Hydrologic and meteorological data for an unsaturated-zone study area near the Radioactive Waste Management Complex, Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, Idaho, 1990-96

“…This trench has been used to study changes in soil hydraulic properties caused by waste burial disturbance (Shakofsky, 1995: John Nimmo, USGS, written commun., 1998. The trench was constructed to simulate methods of waste burial historically used at the RWMC (Pittman, 1995).…”

“…This quantity includes the transuranic wastes buried prior to 1970. An estimated 335 m3 of organic wastes also were buried before 1970 (Pittman, 1995). The RWMC is managed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and was operated by EG&G Idaho, Inc., a DOE contractor at the INEEL, until 1994.…”

“…Radionuclides have been detected in core and drill cuttings from several boreholes drilled into the surficial sediments and underlying rock units at the RWMC (Pittman, 1995). Because of the potential for the migration of radionuclides from the RWMC to the Snake River Plain aquifer, about 177 m below land surface, a study was begun in 1985 by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the DOE.…”