A geophysical characterization and monitoring strategy for determining controls on groundwater-surface water exchange regulating contaminant transport at the Hanford 300-Area
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A geophysical characterization and monitoring strategy for determining controls on groundwater-surface water exchange regulating contaminant transport at the Hanford 300-Area
The transport of Uranium contaminated groundwater to the Columbia River in the hyporheic corridor of the U.S. Department of Energy Hanford 300-Area, Richland, Washington, is influenced by the depth and location of the Hanford-Ringold contact. Ringold Formation sediments have distinct physicochemical properties compared to the Hanford Formation sediments through which groundwater flows. Definition of the spatial variability and the depth to the Hanford-Ringold contact across the site is crucial to improve understanding of contaminant transport between the aquifer and the river. This dissertation focuses on the use of geophysical datasets to build a hydrological framework for understanding groundwater-surface water interaction and mixing of Uranium contaminated groundwater with Columbia River. Geophysical data including resistivity, induced polarization (IP) and streambed temperature were collected in the 300-Area. The first part of this dissertation report on the use of resistivity/IP survey to image spatial distribution of the primary lithologic units controlling flow across the site. The Hanford- Ringold contact is clearly identified from the sharp contrast in polarizability between the two units. Variation in the elevation of this contact provides evidence of a depression in the Hanford-Ringold contact connecting the aquifer and the river, likely facilitating flow and transport at the site. Fiber-optic cables were used for distributed temperature sensing (FO-DTS), to monitor real time temperature along the river corridor. It is recognized that groundwater discharge in 300-Area is controlled by fluctuations in the river stage. The second part of this dissertation focuses on time series and time-frequency analysis of FO-DTS and river stage data to better understand the control of river stage on groundwater discharge. Time series analysis of FO-DTS data identified spatial distribution of groundwater discharge zones on the river bed. Time-frequency analysis provides spatial information on the strength of stage-driven discharge of groundwater along the river corridor. The third part of this dissertation addresses the need for a new approach to extract quantitative information from FO-DTS data while providing an assessment of uncertainty associated with this information. A combination of discriminant analysis and spectral analysis is used to quantitatively map zones of enhanced groundwater discharge while providing measures of classification uncertainty.
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Environmental Science
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