Groundwater flow and tritium migration from the SRS Old Burial Ground to Fourmile Branch

The objectives of this investigation are twofold. The initial goal is to devise and demonstrate a technique for directly incorporating fine-scale lithologic data into heterogeneous hydraulic conductivity fields, for improved groundwater flow and contaminant transport model accuracy. The ultimate goal is to rigorously simulate past and future tritium migration from the SRS Old Burial Ground towards Fourmile Branch, to better understand the effects of various remediation alternatives such as no action and capping. Large-scale variability in hydraulic conductivity is usually the main influence on field-scale groundwater flow patterns and dispersive transport, following the relative locations of recharge and discharge areas. Incorporating realistic hydraulic conductivity heterogeneity into flow and transport models is paramount to accurate simulations, particularly for contaminant migration. Sediment lithologic descriptions and geophysical logs typically offer finer spatial resolution, and therefore more potential information about heterogeneity, than other site characterization data