Conductivity and transit time estimates of a soil liner

I.G. Krapac; K. Cartwright; S.V. Panno; B.R. Hensel; K.H. Rehfeldt; B.L. Herzog

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USGS · 70016190

Conductivity and transit time estimates of a soil liner

I.G. Krapac·K. Cartwright·S.V. Panno·B.R. Hensel·K.H. Rehfeldt·B.L. Herzog

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Abstract

A field-scale soil linear was built to assess the feasibilty of constructing a liner to meet the saturated hydraulic conductivity requirement of the U.S. EPA (i.e., less than 1 ?? 10-7 cm/s), and to determine the breakthrough and transit times of water and tracers through the liner. The liner, 8 ?? 15 ?? 0.9 m, was constructed in 15-cm compacted lifts using a 20,037-kg pad-foot compactor and standard engineering practices. Estimated saturated hydraulic conductivities were 2.4 ?? 10-9 cm/s, based on data from large-ring infiltrometers; 4.0 ?? 10-8 cm/s from small-ring infiltrometers; and 5.0 ?? 10-8 cm/s from a water-balance analysis. These estimates were derived from 1 year of monitoring water infiltration into the linear. Breakthrough of tracers at the base of the liner was estimated to be between 2 and 13 years, depending on the method of calculation and the assumptions used in the calculation.

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I.G. Krapac, K. Cartwright, S.V. Panno, B.R. Hensel, K.H. Rehfeldt, B.L. Herzog. 1990. Conductivity and transit time estimates of a soil liner. https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70016190

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