Potential Impacts of Leakage from Black Rock Reservoir on the Hanford Site Unconfined Aquifer: Initial Hypothetical Simulations of Flow and Contaminant Transport.
Initial scoping calculations of the unconfined aquifer at the Hanford Site were carried out for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) to investigate the potential impacts on the Hanford unconfined aquifer that would result from leakage from the proposed Black Rock Reservoir to the west. Although impacts on groundwater flow and contaminant transport were quantified based on numerical simulation results, the investigation represented a qualitative assessment of the potential lateral recharge that could result in adverse effects on the aquifer. Because the magnitude of the potential leakage is unknown, hypothetical bounding calculations were performed. When a quantitative analysis of the magnitude of the potential recharge from Black Rock Reservoir is obtained, the hydrologic impacts analysis will be revisited. The analysis presented in this report represents initial bounding calculations. A maximum lateral recharge (i.e., upland flux) was determined in the first part of this study by executing steady-state flow simulations that raised the water table no higher than the elevation attained in the Central Plateau during the Hanford operational period. This metric was selected because it assumed a maximum remobilization of contaminants that existed under previous fully saturated conditions. Three steady-state flow fields were then used to analyze impacts to transient contaminant transport: a maximum recharge (27,000 acre-ft/yr), a no additional flux (365 acre-ft/yr), and an intermediate recharge case (16,000 acre-ft/yr). The transport behavior of four radionuclides was assessed for a 300 year simulation period with the three flow fields. The four radionuclides are tritium, iodine-129, technetium-99, and uranium-238.
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