Publications

A wireline-operated packer was designed for use with a standard geophysical logging system. The packer probe consists of a downhole packer inflated with water removed from the borehole by an in-line submersible pump, and a differential pressure transducer calibrated to measure the hydraulic-head difference between the zones above and below the packer. Analysis of the packer data is based...

Saturated hydraulic conductivity of aquifer sediments at a crude-oil spill research site near Bemidji, Minnesota were examined using pneumatically-induced head-difference tests and packer/vacuum system tests. Results from slug tests on 58 wells show that hydraulic conductivity varies both horizontally and vertically in the range from about 10-7 to 10-4 meters per second (m/s), with a...

No abstract available.

Subsurface spills of gasoline and other petroleum products are a common environmental problem throughout the industrialized world. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that 40 percent of the more than 200,000 retail service stations in the United States have had accidental releases of petroleum hydrocarbons to the subsurface (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1991)

Knowledge of the residence times of the ground-water systems in Chesapeake Bay watershed helps resource managers anticipate potential delays between implementation of land-management practices and any improve-ments in river and estuary water quality. This report presents preliminary estimates of ground-water residence times and apparent ages of water in the shallow aquifers of the...

Water samples were collected from four lakes in Byram Township, Sussex County, N.J., in the summer of 1998 as part of an investigation of the occurrence of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in domestic wells of lakeside communities. Cranberry Lake and Lake Lackawanna are surrounded by densely populated communities where the use of gasoline-powered watercraft is prevalent, and water is...

No abstract available.

This report is intended to summarize major findings that emerged between 1991 and 1995 from the water-quality assessment of the Willamette Basin Study Unit and to relate these findings to water-quality issues of regional and national concern. The information is primarily intended for those who are involved in water-resource management. Yet, the information contained here may also...

A multispecies numerical code was developed to simulate flow and mass transport with kinetic adsorption in variable-density flow systems. The two-dimensional code simulated the transport of bromide (Br−), a nonreactive tracer, and lithium (Li+), a reactive tracer, in a large-scale tracer test performed in a sand-and-gravel aquifer at Cape Cod, Massachusetts. A two-fraction kinetic...

We determined the role of the hyporheic zone (the subsurface zone where stream water and shallow groundwater mix) in enhancing microbially mediated oxidation of dissolved manganese (to form manganese precipitates) in a drainage basin contaminated by copper mining. The fate of manganese is of overall importance to water quality in Pinal Creek Basin, Arizona, because manganese reactions...

The closed chamber method was used to assess nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes from corn (Zea mays, L.) fields during the 1995 growing season. The study area was characterized by a claypan soil overlying a nitrate (NO31-)-enriched glacial-drift aquifer. Denitrification produced N2O fluxes of 0.2-6.9 g ha-1 hr-1 early in the growing season. Fluxes increased with increasing soil temperature, soil...

Slug tests in fractured rock usually are interpreted with models that assume homogeneous formation properties, even though hydraulic properties of fractures can vary by many orders of magnitude over the length of boreholes. To investigate the impact of heterogeneity on the interpretation of slug tests in fractured rock, slug tests were conducted over large intervals of boreholes in...