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Consultation Draft, Site Characterization Plan, Yucca Mountain Site, Nevada Research and Development Area, Ne

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Consultation Draft, Site Characterization Plan, Yucca Mountain Site, Nevada Research and Development Area, Ne DOE/RW-01 60 DOE/RW 0160 Chapter 3 Nuclear Waste Policy Act HYDROLOGY (Section 113) C Consultation Draft Yucca Mountain Site, Nevada Research and Development Area, Nevada Volume 11 January 1988 U.S. Department of Energy Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Washington, DC 20585 8802190055 880131 PDR WASTE ."., WM-11 *PDR I~ 'qk 4 CONSULTATION DRAFT Chapter-3 HYDROLOGY This chapter summarizes present knowledge of the regional and site hydrologic systems. The purpose of the information presented is to (1) des- cribe the hydrology based on available literature and preliminary site- ' exploration activities that have been or aire being performed and (2) provide information to be used to develop the hydrologic aspects of the planned site characterization program. INTRODUCTION An understanding of the hydrologic regime is required for many of the issues in the Nevada Nuclear Waste Storage Investigations (NNWSI) Project Issues Hierarchy (Section 8.2).' In particular; the nine Performance Issues (l.1:through 1.9) of Key Issue 1 (related to the postclosure environment); the Characterization Programs 8.3.1.2 (geohydrology), 8.3.1.3 (geochemistry), and 8.3.1.9 (water resources); the Performance Issue (4.1) of Key Issue 4 (preclosure); and the Characterization'Program 8.3.1.16 (hydrology) all per- tain directly to hydrology. In addition,;other programs are-indirectly related to hydrology, (e.g., Programs 8.3.1.5, 8.3.1.6, and 8.3.1.8 question the effects that climatic change, erosional processes, and tectonic processes, exert on the hydrologic characteristics at the site). Furthermore, issues related to design (both in the preclosure and-postclosure time frames) require a knowledge of the'emplacement environment,"a major component of which is moisture. Therefore, an understanding'of'the hydrologic system in and around Yucca Mountain is paramount to satisfying many of the issues in the issues hierarchy. One of the primary advantages of the proposed Yucca Mountain repository site is that it is'intended to-be'located in the unsaturated zone, approxi- mately 300 m above the saturated zone. This chapter discusses in detail the present understanding of hydrologic conditions within the unsaturated zone, as well as conditions in the saturated zone and in the surface hydrologic systems; the last two act as boundaries to the unsaturated zone. For convenience in describing the-hydrologic regime,' two'types of study areas are defined in this chapter: (1) a hydrographic study area (Figure 3-1) that delineates the regional surface water system that encompasses Yucca Mountain and (2) a hydrogeologic study area (Figure 3-2), the boundaries of which approximate the regional ground-water flow system surrounding Yucca Mountain. These study areas represent the areas from which.published data were compiled to describe the hydrology of the region and site, additional investigations are' planned for parts of these study areas, as described in Section 8.3.1.2. The hydrographic study area is composed of eight smaller hydrographic areas as described by Waddell et al. (1984) (Figure 3-1). Yucca Mountain yj lies on the boundary of the Crater Flat and Fortymile Canyon-Jackass Flats hydrographic areas. Detailed discussions of the surface-water system within 3-1 CONSULTATION DRAFT 117*00' 1 1600' <\-I 0 10 20 30 40 50 MILES * I * * t I I i . I I- . 4- . I 0 1 0 20 30 40 50 KILOMETERS HYDROGRAPHIC AREAS 1 DEATH VALLEY AND 4 FORTYMILE CANYON, LOWER AMARGOSA JACKASS FLATS BOUNDARY OF AREA HYDROGRAPHIC 5 FORTYMILE CANYON, STUDY AREA 2 AMARGOSA DESERT BUCKBOARD MESA AND UPPER 6 MERCURY VALLEY MAJOR STREAM AMARGOSA AREA CHANNELS 7 OASIS VALLEY 3 CRATER FLAT 8 ROCK VALLEY * YUCCA MOUNTAIN SITE Figure 3-1. Hydrographic study area, showing the eight hydrographic areas and major stream channels. Modi- fied from Waddell, et al. (1984). 3-2 A-7- - CONSULTATION DRAFT 117-00' 1 1600' 115500, , I 4-IAR*flf BOUNDARY OF I , HYDROGEOLOGIC I ' STUDY AREA- _ (DASHED WHERE i UNCERTAIN) I. ( Ii . - 3700' - 36*00- I. , ., -.....*.. .0O. 10 20 - :- MILES 0 10 20 30 40 KILOMETERS GENERAL DIRECTION OF' REGIONAL GROUND-WATER FLOW Cal > , (QUESTION MARK INDICATES UNCERTAINTY) . A. OASIS VALLEY SUBBASIN'. B. ALKALI FLAT-FURNACE CREEK RANCH SUBBASIN C." ASH: MEADOWS .SUBBASIN ... Figure 3-2. ' Hydrogeologic study area, showing three ground-water subbasins. -Modified from Rush (1970), Blankennagel and Weir (1973). Winograd and Thordarson (1975). Dudley and Larsen (1976), Waddell (1982). and Waddell,et al. (1984). 3-3 CONSULTATION DRAFT the hydrographic study area are presented in Section 3.1 (description of surface hydrology), 3.2 (floods), 3.3 (locations and distances to points of surface-water use), and 3.4 (chemical composition of adjacent watercourses). As these s'ections discuss, the occurrence of surface-water bodies is extremely limited in the vicinity of Yucca Mountain; their primary importance is in their relationship to the ground-water system, as discussed in Section 3.5 (points of ground-water discharge). The hydrogeologic study area (Figure 3-2) consists of three ground-water subbasins that together'form a part of the Death Valley ground-water basin (Waddell et al., 1984). These subbasins are the Oasis Valley subbasin, Alkali Flat-Furnace Creek Ranch subbasin, and the Ash Meadows subbasin. The division into and the approximate boundaries of these ground-water subbasins have been estimated from potentiometric levels, geologic controls of subsur- face flow, discharge areas, and inferred flow paths (Rush, 1970; Blankennagel and Weir, 1973; Winograd and Thordarson, 1975; Dudley and Larson, 1976; Waddell, 1982; Waddell et al., 1984). In some areasi the boundaries are uncertain due to the lack of potentiometric data, the complexity of geologic structures, or the occurrence of interbasin flow of ground water through the lower carbonate-aquifer (Winograd and Thordarson, 1975). Regional flow paths in the hydrogeologic study area vary in direction from southerly to south- westerly (Winograd and Thordarson, 1975; Waddell, 1982). Detailed discus- sions of the regional hydrogeology and regional flow systems are included in Sections 3.6 and 3.7. Detailed discussions of the site (Yucca Mountain) hydrogeology are included in Section 3.9. The discussions include aquifer- hydraulics information, water-balance calculations, and water-chemistry data for both the saturated and the unsaturated zones. Most of the information on the regional hydrology is available in pub- lished reports from general ground-water studies made during the 1960s and 1970s by the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources or by the Department in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The studies were used principally for general water-resource appraisals of parts of Nevada. A few studies of surface hydrology were also made, but because the region is generally arid and because streamflow is essentially ephemeral, very few data have been collected. In 1957 the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (later the Energy Research and Development Administration and presently the Department of Energy) began underground testing of nuclear devices at the Nevada Test Site (NTS), and therefore needed an evaluation of the occurrence and movement of ground water within and adjacent to the NTS. There was a need to determine both the potential for radionuclide contamination of ground water and location of water supplies. Thus, a program of hydrologic and geologic studies was established between the Atomic Energy Commission and the USGS and has con- tinued since the late 1950s to the present. In a paper published in 1975, Winograd and Thordarson (1975) summarized the current understanding of the regional hydrogeology and flow systems within the hydrogeologic study area. This report is the basis for the more'recent hydrologic studies, such as a regional ground-water flow modeling effort'by Waddell (1982). Regional ground-water studies for the NNWSI Project have continued because they provide an understanding of the ground-water flow system in the vicinity of Yucca Mountain. Furthermore, regional studies provide a basis for evaluating 3-4 CONSULTATION DRAFT future changes in climate and hydrology. Such possible future'effects may be important to isolation of waste at:Yucca'Mountain.- In general, hydrogeologic data for the region are believed to be ade- quate for regional quantitative ground-water flow modeling, although there remain some hydrologic features that'are not completely understood for the purposes of site characterization. Where it is important to resolve such questions (such as the potential for recharge near Fortymile Wash), plans have been'developed for additional field studies as described 'inSection 8.3.1.2.1. Various hypotheses about the ground-water flow systems and probable present and future fluxes are continuing to be evaluated to improve general understanding and to determine probable error bounds for calculated quantities such as ground-water velocities and future water levels. These hypotheses are discussed in Sections 3.6, 3.7, and 3.9. Most of the hydrologic information about the Yucca Mountain site has been obtained from studies conducted since 1978. During the first few years of these studies, the emphasis was on describing'the hydrogeology of 'the saturated zone. As additional data became available, consideration was given to locating the repository within the unsaturated zone. 'The unsaturated zone at Yucca Mountain is thick (500 to 750 m at-the proposed repository) and offers several possible advantages over the saturated zone, including longer ground-water travel times from the repository to the accessible environment, the existence of a zeolitic tuff along the flow path that may retard radio- nuclide transport, and the avoidance of difficulties associated with con- structing and operating a repository within the saturated zone. *Because of the recent shift of investigative emphasis to the unsaturated zone and the lack of previous investigations of thick unsaturated zones, less is known about it than about the saturated zone.
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