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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Interpretation of the WIPP-13 multipad pumping test of the Culebra Dolomite at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:7229329

A large-scale pumping test of the Culebra Dolomite Member of the Rustler Formation was performed in early 1987 at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site in southeastern New Mexico. This test complemented the H-3 (or southern) multipad test by creating a hydraulic stress that could be measured over the northern portion of the WIPP site. The test consisted of pumping well WIPP-13 at a rate of 30 gpm for 36 days and monitoring drawdown and recovery responses in 17 observation wells and one WIPP shaft. Responses were observed in 14 of these wells. Interpretations of the responses at the wells are consistent with the following conceptualization: The Culebra is a fractured, double-porosity system around WIPP-13, H-6, and DOE-2, with relatively high transmissivity and relatively low storativity. The analyses of the responses measured at observation wells to the WIPP-13 multipad pumping test provide a qualitative conceptualization of three distinct domains within a heterogeneous portion of the Culebra north of the center of the WIPP site. This conceptualization is being refined by using numerical-modeling techniques to simulate the WIPP-13 multipad test and other tests at the WIPP site in an attempt to define the distribution of hydraulic properties that will reproduce the responses observed. 36 refs., 74 figs., 3 tabs.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-76DP00789
OSTI ID:
7229329
Report Number(s):
SAND-87-2456; ON: DE88013155
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English