Field study of dispersion in a heterogeneous aquifer: 1. Overview and site description

Abstract

Results are presented for a large‐scale natural gradient tracer experiment conducted in a heterogeneous alluvial aquifer at a site near Columbus, Mississippi. The study was initiated with a 48‐hour pulse injection of 10 m 3 of groundwater containing bromide and three organic tracers (pentaflourobenzoic acid, o‐trifluoromethylbenzoic acid, and 2,6‐diflourobenzoic acid). Over a 20‐month period, seven comprehensive samplings of the tracer plume were performed at approximately 1‐ to 4‐month intervals using an extensive three‐dimensional sampling well network. The dominant feature of the tracer plume that evolved during the study was the highly asymmetric concentration distribution in the longitudinal direction. This asymmetry was produced by accelerating groundwater flow along the plume travel path that, in turn, resulted from an approximate 2‐order‐of‐magnitude increase in the mean hydraulic conductivity between the near‐field and far‐field regions of the site. The Columbus study is distinct from previous natural gradient experiments because of the extreme heterogeneity of the aquifer, the large‐scale spatial variations in groundwater velocity, and the extensive set of hydraulic conductivity measurements for the aquifer.