Performance Monitoring, Site Characterization

• U.S. Air Force
• Mitretek Systems, Inc.
• URS Corporation
• ABB Environmental Services
• Technology Innovation Office, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Maine Department of Environmental Protection

View of test wells during blasting of the recovery trench at Loring Air Force Base, Maine. Water was ejected from wells as much as 12 to 15 meters into the air

U.S. Geological Survey scientists used borehole- and surface-geophysical methods to characterize the hydrogeology and the effects of blast fracturing an in-situ recovery trench in a contaminated fractured-bedrock aquifer located at the former fire-training area of Loring Air Force Base in Aroostook County, Maine. Borehole-geophysical methods, used in six wells at the site, included video, acoustic televiewer, heat-pulse flowmeter under nonpumping and low-rate pumping conditions, natural gamma, electromagnetic induction, fluid temperature and conductivity, caliper, deviation, and borehole radar. Borehole radar was used in a single-hole reflection configuration with directional and non-directional 60-MHz (megahertz) antennas and in a cross-hole tomography configuration with 22-MHz antennas. One surface-geophysical method, azimuthal square-array direct-current resistivity, also was used. The results of the geophysical montitoring provided a conceptual understanding of the hydrology and geology of the site and documented the effects of blast-fracturing the recovery trench.

• Geophysical characterization of a fractured-bedrock aquifer and blast-fractured contaminant-recovery trench
• Loring Air Force Base, Limestone, Maine, Waste Site Cleanup and Reuse in New England, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Public Health Assessment of Loring Air Force Base by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

• Lane, J.W., Jr., Haeni, F.P., Soloyanis, Susan, Placzek, Gary, Williams, J.H., Johnson, C.D., Buursink, M.L., Joesten, P.K., and Knutson, K.D., 1996, Geophysical characterization of a fractured-bedrock aquifer and blast-fractured contaminant-recovery trench, in Bell, R.S., and Cramer, M.H., eds., Symposium on the Application of Geophysics to Engineering and Environmental Problems, Keystone, Colo., April 28-May 2, 1996, Proceedings: Wheat Ridge, Colorado, Environmental and Engineering Geophysical Society, p. 429-441.

Geophysical Methods Research

• USGS Develops Geophysical Methods to Improve Remediation Monitoring and Site Characterization
• Branch of Geophysics Research with the Toxic Substances Hydrology Program
• The Application of Geophysical Logging to Hydrogeological Investigations
• Geophysical Monitoring of the Use of a Biostimulation Technology to Remediate Contaminated Ground Water
• Borehole-Geophysical Monitoring of Steam-Injection Remediation Technology Link to New Page
• Borehole-Geophysical Monitoring of a Contaminated Fractured Rock Aquifer