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2003 UZIG Meeting in Richland, WA

October 8-10, 2003

 


edited by William N. Herkelrath (wnherkel@usgs.gov)

The 2003 meeting of the Unsaturated Zone Interest Group (UZIG) was held in Richland , Washington , October 8-10, 2003., UZIG is composed of scientists, technical support staff, and regulators from government (e.g., USGS, DOE, State, etc.), university and private industry groups from across the US., About 90 people were in attendance.  The UZIG meeting provided a unique opportunity for scientists to meet and share unsaturated zone research results in an informal setting. The meeting offered an excellent opportunity to get feedback from a diverse audience on work in progress. Because of the informal nature of the workshop, there was no publication of the papers presented at the UZIG meeting. However, a listing of presentations is given below.

 The meetings included two days of oral and poster presentations (October 8-9), followed by field trips to the Hanford Site and PNNL on October 10. Unsaturated zone research carried out at the Hanford Site was one theme of the meeting. Most of the Hanford Site Vadose zone problems addressed by personnel at the Hanford Site overlap with research being carried out at USGS. Topics discussed at the meeting included the following:

      Uncertainty and risk analysis related to radionuclide transport in the unsaturated zone

Methods of estimating/measuring flow and transport parameters

Methods and problems with upscaling parameters from lab to field scale

Field unsaturated zone monitoring and sampling technology

Unsaturated zone tracer tests

Preferential flow paths

Unsaturated anisotropy

Fingering and hydrodynamic instability

Recharge in arid environments

Modeling water flow and solute/colloid transport in the unsaturated zone

Measuring and modeling transport of non-aqueous phase liquids in the unsaturated zone (e.g., carbon tetrachloride)

In addition to the above topics, results of studies relating to other aspects of unsaturated zone science included the following:

Ground-water recharge in humid regions

Aquifer recharge from ephemeral streams and upland areas

Artificial recharge and aquifer storage

Heat and water flow in the unsaturated zone

Methods for measuring and estimating evapotranspiration

Flow, diffusion, and reaction of gases in the unsaturated zone

Watershed-scale transport of agricultural chemicals from the soil to ground water

Bioremediation and transformation of contaminants in the unsaturated zone

The field trip held on Friday (Oct. 10th) included tours of the 200 E and 200 W areas with stops at ongoing, DOE-supported, unsaturated zone study sites including the Prototype Surface Barrier, near the BY Tank Farm; the Field Lysimeter Test Facility, near the Hanford Meteorological Station; and the Vadose Zone Transport Field Study funded by the Hanford S&T project –Clastic Dike site,  just off Army Loop Road.  

The steering committee for the 2003  UZIG meeting included:

Bill Herkelrath (wnherkel@usgs.gov)

Glendon Gee (glendon.gee@pnl.gov)

Mark Freshley (mark.freshly@pnl.gov)

Geoff Delin (delin@usgs.gov)

Alan Flint (aflint@usgs.gov)

Rick Healy (rwhealy@usgs.gov)

John Nimmo (jrnimmo@usgs.gov)

Dave Stonestrom (dastones@usgs.gov)

Ed Weeks (epweeks@usgs.gov)

 

Attendance Statistics

2003 Unsaturated Zone Interest Group Meeting

31        USGS

42        DOE and DOE-Associated Labs:

25                PNNL

5          CH2MHILL Hanford

5          Fluor Hanford

2          LBL

1          LANL

1          LLNL

2          ORNL

1          Other

8          State Governments:

            4          Washington

            2          Idaho

            1          Oregon

            1          Wyoming

7          Universities

            4          Washington State University

            2          Stanford University

            1          University of Idaho

1          USDA Agricultural Research Service

2          Other

 

91        Total Participants

 

Oral Presentations

2003 Unsaturated Zone Interest Group Meeting 

Presenter

Title

Roy Gephart

An Overview of Hanford Nuclear Waste History

Andy Ward

Quantifying the combined effects of Physical and Chemical Heterogeneities on Field-scale Reactive Transport

George Last

Lithofacies mapping to estimate the spatial structure of physical and chemical transport properties

Raz  Khaleel

Effective unsaturated media properties for Hanford sediments

Fred Zhang

The combined parameter scaling and inverse technique (CPSIT) to upscale hydraulic parameters at the Hanford Site

Glendon Gee

Water Budget Analysis of Landfill Covers Using Simplified Models

Marcus Flury

Colloid-Facilitated Transport of Cesium in Variably-Saturated Hanford Sediments

Molly Pace

Unsaturated transport of U(VI), Cr(VI), Co(EDTA), and Sr through undisturbed Hanford vadose zone sediments.

Bill Herkelrath

Unsaturated zone tracer test at the Bemidji , Minnesota crude oil spill site.

Stephen Moysey

Challenges in calibrating field-scale relations for estimating water content from ground penetrating radar data

Rosemary Knight

Analysis of Ground Penetrating Radar Images to Quantify the Spatial Distribution of Water Content

Geoff Delin

Long-term changes in biodegradation and volatilization rates in the unsaturated zone at the Bemidji , Minnesota crude-oil research site.

John Nimmo

How fast does water flow in a macropore?  Evidence from field and lab experiments

Ming Ye

Maximum Likelihood Bayesian Averaging of Alternative Geostatistical Air Permeability Models for Unsaturated Fractured Tuff.

David DiCarlo

Macroscopic flow paths controlled by pore-scale physics: The story of gravity driven fingering

Tom Nolan

NAWQA overview

Jeff Frey

Agricultural Chemical Transport in the Vadose Zone in Leary Weber Ditch, Indiana

Kevin Dennehy

Water Movement Through Thick Unsaturated Zones Overlying the High Plains Aquifer

Ed Weeks

Transport of Chlorofluorocarbons and Sulfur Hexafluoride in Thick Unsaturated Zones Overlying the High Plains Aquifer

Alan Flint

Development and calibration of a potential evapotranspiration model for site or regional studies

Rick Healy

Study of Ground-Water Recharge Rates in the Northern Powder River Basin

Brian Andraski

TOXICS/ADRS overview

Jared Abraham

DC-resistivity profiling to study ground-water recharge near the Amargosa Desert Research Site, Nevada

Michelle Walvoord

Nitrate retention beneath nitrogen-limited vegetation in arid climates

Dave Stonestrom

Slow accumulation/quick release of nitrate beneath desert soils: examples from the Amargosa Desert

Dave Pollock

Office of Ground Water overview


Meeting Poster Presentations

2003 Unsaturated Zone Interest Group 

Brian Andraski

Importance and Use of Plants in Evaluating Water Flow and Contaminant Transport in Arid Environments

Brian Andraski (Justin Mayers)

Modeling Tritium Transport Through a Deep Unsaturated Zone, Amargosa Desert Research Site, Nye County , Nevada

Brian Andraski (Ron Baker)

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and elevated concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in unsaturated-zone vapors near a chemical and low-level radioactivity waste-disposal facility, Amargosa Desert Research Site, Nye County , Nevada .

Mike Johnson

Quantifying water losses from the unsaturated zone using evapotranspiration in Amargosa Desert , Nye County , Nevada

Glendon Gee

Water and solute fluxes measured with a water fluxmeter

Jason Keller

A method for correcting diurnal fluctuations in permittivity and electrical conductivity inferred from TDR measurements in the field.

Jason Shira

Vadose Zone Sampling:  Collecting Colloids with Passive Capillary Samplers (PCAPS)

Kari Winfield

A Statistical Model for Predicting Unsaturated Hydraulic Properties of Deep Sediments at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory

Maria Caputo

Unsaturated Hydraulic Characterization of Porous Carbonatic Rock in the Laboratory

Dave Stannard

Evapotranspiration Measurements in a Small Subalpine Meadow Using Bowen-Ratio, Eddy Correlation and Chamber Methods

Fred Brockman

Microcosm experiments and modeling of microbial movement under unsaturated conditions.

Fred Brockman

Potential for microbial stimulation in deep vadose zone sediments by gas-phase nutrients.

Lorrie Flint

Soil Moisture and Plant Rooting Strategies in the Mojave National Preserve

Shuihui Dun

Assessing the performance of SHAW for predict soil moisture and temperature under alternative residue managements

Charles Kincaid

An Overview of the System Assessment Capability: Software Design and Implementation

Chris Brown

Uranium Leach Rates and Partition Coefficients as a Function of pH, Ionic Strength, and Carbonate Solution Concentration

Will Nichols

An Overview of the System Assessment Capability: Inventory and Environmental Transport Simulation

Mart Oostrom

Formation of residual NAPL in the vadose zone

Mark Rockhold

Simulation of Carbon Tetrachloride Migration from the 216-Z-9 Trench at Hanford

Melanie Mayes

Coupled Hydrological and Geochemical Transport of Metal-Organic Complexes in Undisturbed Hanford Vadose Zone Sediments

Paul Eslinger

System Assessment Capability: Impacts and Uncertainty Analysis

George Last

A Systematic Approach for Developing Conceptual Models of Contaminant Transport at the Hanford Site

Kate Maher

Reaction rates in the 200 West Area at Hanford , Washington , inferred from U series disequilibrium

Michael Singleton

Stable isotope studies of vadose zone pore waters at the Hanford Site

Christopher Green

Measured versus predicted recharge and transport through a sandy soil in the San Joaquin Valley, California

Christopher Heppner

Estimating Recharge using Rapid, Wide-Ranging Water Table Fluctuations in a Fractured Rock Setting

David Hudson

Ponded Infiltration into Twelve 1 Square meter plots of fractured unsaturated welded tuff at Yucca Mountain , NV

Kim Perkins

Comparison of Aquifer Recharge Estimates Based on Measured and Estimated Hydraulic Properties

Tom Nolan

Recharge and Contaminant Transport at the Subregional Scale


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Last modified: Mon Mar 1, 2013