Publications Details

Hydrogeology associated with the Waste isolation pilot plant

Kuhlman, Kristopher L.; Barnhart, Kevin S.

Hydrologic characterization at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), near Carlsbad, New Mexico, has historically focused on collection of geologic data, such as cores and borehole geophysical logs, and the estimation of hydrologic parameters from single- and multi-well aquifer tests. These data have resulted in a detailed understanding of the depositional and alteration processes that have affected the hydrologie units of interest at WIPP. The hydrologie conceptual model has been used to create a groundwater flow and radionuclide transport model used in WIPP performance assessment (PA). Long-term monitoring of a large network of monitoring wells between testing events has produced millions of high-frequency, long-duration water level records. Hydrologie analysis techniques associated with barometric, Earth tide, and precipitation signals, these long-term data have the potential to reveal additional insights about the large-scale hydrogeology of the formations near WIPP. This study emphasizes that hydrological and geophysical data and analysis is important on multiple temporal and spatial scales in order to achieve effective characterization.