The Radioactive Waste Management Complex (RWMC) Subsurface Disposal Area (SDA) at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) has been used for burial of radioactive waste since 1952. In 1985, the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy, began a multi-phase study of the geohydrology of the RWMC to provide a basis for estimating the extent of and the potential for migration of radionuclides in the unsaturated zone beneath the waste trenches and pits. This is the final phase in a study to provide hydrologic and meteorological data collected at a designated test trench area established by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1985 adjacent to the northern boundary of the RWMC SDA.
Soil-moisture content measurements were collected approximately monthly during the 1997-99 period from 13 neutron-probe access holes with a neutron moisture gage. A meteorological station inside the test trench area provides data for the determination of evapotranspiration rates. This station measures soil surface temperature, net radiation, air temperature, relative humidity, windspeed, wind direction, soil heat flux, and precipitation, and also calculates vapor pressure. Meteorological data for the test trench area are available for 1997 and part of 1998. The meteorological and soil-moisture data are contained in files on a compact disk included with this report. The data are presented in simple American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) format with tab-delimited fields.
