Wednesday, April 2, 2008 : 9:20 a.m.

Well logging and reconstruction for radium reduction

John Jansen, Ph.D., Aquifer Science & Technology

Wells 2 and 3 in the Village of Pewaukee, Wisconsin were constructed to depths of approximately 1,250 feet into the Cambrian-Ordovician sandstone aquifer.  The sandstone aquifer consists of a thick sequence of sandstone, dolomite, and shale units that form several separate aquifer units.  The wells produced 460 and 900 gpm of generally very good quality water.  Unfortunately radium levels in both wells exceeded the MCL of 5 pCi/l. 

A suite of geophysical logs were run in both wells under non-pumping conditions to identify the major aquifers and confining units and estimate the flow between aquifers under static conditions.  A second suite of logs was run in each well while pumping.  The wells were pumped at a rate of 430 to 550 gpm to purge the individual producing zones.  Flow meter logs were run while pumping to determine the relative production of each producing zone.  The results of the dynamic logs were used to select water sampling depths using a down hole discrete sampler.  The water samples were analyzed for major ions, radium and gross alpha.
In Well 2, we sealed a high radium interval in the upper part of the borehole by hanging a packer on the pump column at 870 feet and pumping from below the packer.  In Well 3 we sealed a high radium zone in the lower portion of the borehole by backfilling to 1,130 feet with grout.  Several low radium zones were selectively stimulated in both wells using the AirburstTM method.  Radium levels in Well 2 were reduced from 5.7 pCi/l to 3.2 pCi/l with a reduction in specific capacity of about 30%.  Radium levels in Well 3 were reduced from 5.3 to 3.5 pCi/l, with a reduction in specific capacity of about 25% to 35%.

John Jansen, Ph.D., Aquifer Science & Technology Dr. Jansen has over 20 years of experience in ground-water resource development with respect to environmental and engineering geophysics. Dr jansen has conducted over 200 ground-water resource investigation throughout the United States and Mexico. He is the co-author of the Borehole Geophysics chapter in the 3rd Edition of Ground Water and Wells.


2008 Ground Water Summit