Results of hydraulic tests in wells DOE-1, 2, 3, Salt Valley, Grand County, Utah

Three exploratory wells were drilled for geological, geophysical, and hydrological purposes in Salt Valley, Grand County, Utah. Cap rock, salt, and interbeds of the Paradox Member of the Hermosa Formation of Middle Pennsylvanian age were penetrated. The observed depth below land surface of the cap rock-salt interface ranges from 163 meters (m) to 191 meters. Approximately the upper 100 meters of cap rock were unsaturated by ground water. Within the saturated part of the cap rock, hydraulic heads generally decrease with depth and southwestward. Ion concentrations generally increase with depth in the saturated cap rock.

Hydraulic conductivity of cap rock, as determined from pumping tests, may be on the order of 5 x 10^-3 meters per day; as a result, ground-water flow rates in the cap rock are probably very low. A carbon 14 specific activity for cap rock water yielded an uncorrected "age" of greater than 36,000 years. Salt and interbeds have hydraulic conductivities probably less than 1 x 10^-4 meters per day.