Comparison of results of two dye-tracer tests at the Chestnut Ridge Security Pits, Y-12 Plant, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

摘要

Personnel from Martin Marietta Energy Systems, Inc. (Energy Systems) manage a closed hazardous waste disposal unit the Chestnut Ridge Security Pits (CRSP), located on the crest of Chestnut Ridge near the Y-12 Plant, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. To investigate the discharge of groundwater from CRSP to springs and streams located along the flanks and base of Chestnut Ridge, an initial dye-tracer study was conducted during 1990. A hydraulic connection was inferred to exist between the injection well (GW-178) on Chestnut Ridge and several sites to the east-northeast, east, and southeast of CRSP. A second dye-tracer study was conducted in 1992 to verify the results of the initial test and identify additional discharge points that are active during wet-weather conditions. No definitive evidence for the presence of dye was identified at any of the 35 locations monitored during the second dye study. Although interpretations of the initial dye test suggest a hydraulic connection with several sites and CRSP, reevaluation of the spectrofluorescence data from this test suggests that dye may not have been detected during the initial test. A combination of relatively high analytical detection limits during the initial test, and high natural background interference spectral peaks observed during the second test, suggest that high natural background emission spectra near the wavelength of the dye used during the initial test may have caused the apparently high reported concentrations. The results of these two tests do not preclude that a hydraulic connection exists; dye may be present in concentrations below the analytical detection limits or has yet to emerge from the groundwater system. The dye injection well is not completed within any significant karst features. Dye migration therefore, may be within a diffuse, slow-flow portion of the aquifer, at least in the immediate vicinity of the source well.