Ponded infiltration tests at the Box Canyon site: data report and preliminary analysis

We discuss the design and present the main results of a two-week ponded infiltration test conducted in 1996 at the Box Canyon site near the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. To investigate liquid flow and chemical transport in fractured basalt, the following types of instruments were installed in boreholes: tensiometers, suction lysimeters, thermistors, time domain reflectrometry probes, and electrical resisitivity probes. These probes were installed using an innovative technology of borehole instrumentation and completion using polyurethane foam injection. The probes were attached to plastic packers that were inflated using the polyurethane foam, and then the space between packers was back-filled with the foam in order to ensure the isolation of the instruments at different depths. Polyurethane foam showed great promise in enabling rapid, cost-effective installation of sensors and probes in fractured rock. A ponded infiltration test was conducted from 8/27/96 to 9/9/96, by maintaining water to an average depth of 23 cm in a rectangular infiltration pond. Within the 7 x 8 m pond, nine local infiltrometers (0.25 m diameter) were-installed to determine local values of the water flux. A slug of conservative tracer (KM) was added to the pond on 9/2/96, yielding a tracer concentration in the pond of approximately 3 g/L. The water supply to the pond was halted for two days so that the tracer concentration in the pond water would remain essentially constant. Thereafter, the water supply was re-established to maintain a constant water level. Installation procedures and measurement results for each type of probe are presented, along with a description of the data acquisition system. The attachments include a description of the calibration and testing of instrumentation. The data files can be found at the FTP site zenitMnel/ or the Web site http://www- esd.lbl.gov/ERT/inel/inel.htrnl