by Forest P. Lyford, Stephen P. Garabedian, and Bruce P. Hansen
This report is available as a pdf below
Analytical and numerical-modeling methods were used to estimate hydraulic properties
of the aquifer system underlying the Eastern Surplus Company Superfund Site
in Meddybemps, Maine. Estimates of hydraulic properties are needed to evaluate
pathways for contaminants in ground water and to support evaluation and selection
of remediation measures for contaminated ground water at this site.
The hydraulic conductivity of surficial materials, determined from specific-capacity tests,
ranges from 17 to 78 feet per day for wells completed in coarse-grained glaciomarine sediments, and
from about 0.1 to 1.Ofoot per day for wells completed in till. The transmissivity of fractured bedrock
determined from specific-capacity tests and aquifer tests in wells completed in less than 200 feet of
bedrock ranges from about 0.09 to 130 feet squared per day. Relatively high values of transmissivity
at the south end of the study area appear to be associated with a high-angle fracture or fracture zone
that hydraulically connects two wells completed in bedrock. Transmissivities at six low-yielding (less
than 0.5 gallon per minute) wells, which appear to lie within a poorly transmissive block of the bedrock,
are consistently in a range of about 0.09 to 0.5 foot squared per day.
The estimates of hydraulic conductivity and transmissivity in the southern
half of the study area are supported by results of steady-state calibration
of a numerical model and simulation of a 24-hour pumping test at a well completed
in bedrock. Hydraulic conductivity values for the surficial aquifer used in
the model were 30 feet per day for coarse-grained glaciomarine sediments, 0.001
to 0.01 foot per day for fine-grained glaciomarine sediments, and 0.1 to 0.5
foot per day for till. As part of model calibration, a relatively transmissive
zone in the surficial aquifer was extended beyond the hypothesized extent of
coarse-grained sediments eastward to the Dennys River.
Hydraulic conductivity values used for bedrock in the model ranged from 3x10-4 to 1.5 feet per day. The highest values were in the fracture zone that hydraulically connects two wells and apparently extends to the Dennys River. The transmissivity of bedrock used in the model ranged from 0.03 to 150 feet squared per day, with the majority of the bedrock transmissivities set at 0.3 foot squared per day. Numerical modeling results indicated that a very low ratio of vertical hydraulic conductivity to thickness (1x10-9 days-l) was required to simulate a persistent cone of depression near a residential well that lies in the previously identified poorly transmissive block of bedrock.
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