Chemical Analyses of Water from Selected Wells and Springs in the Yucca Mountain Area, Nevada and Southeastern California

Authors

P. W. McKinley, U.S. Geological Survey
M. P. Long, U.S. Geological Survey
Larry Benson, U.S. Geological SurveyFollow

Date of this Version

1991

Citation

CHEMICAL ANALYSES OF WATER FROM SELECTED WELLS AND SPRINGS IN THE YUCCA MOUNTAIN AREA, NEVADA AND SOUTHEASTERN CALIFORNIA By P.W. McKinley, M.P. Long, and L.V. Benson. U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY Open-File Report 90-355. Denver, Colorado 1991.

Comments

U.S. government work

Abstract

Chemical analysis of water samples from 279 wells and springs in the Yucca Mountain area are presented. Where data are available, this report includes: site location expressed as Nevada Central Coordinates and latitude and longitude; source of data; name of analyzing laboratory; geologic unit from which water was obtained; lithology; water use; elevation of well or spring; well depth; depth to water; time pumped before taking the sample; yield; type of filtration; sampling method; date the sample was collected; and anion-cation balance.

Yucca Mountain, Nevada (fig. 1), is being investigated by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy, as a possible repository for the disposal of high-level nuclear wastes. Yucca Mountain is underlain by partially altered volcanic tuffs that probably extend to depths greater than 3,000 m (Snyder and Carr, 1982). If approved, the repository will most likely be excavated within the unsaturated zone, 150 to 300 m above the water table. One concern is that radionuclides might be leached from the stored wastes and eventually reach the saturated zone, where they would be transported in the ground-water system away from the repository.

The purpose of this report is to present a data base that consolidates the available ground-water data for the area surrounding the potential Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository. The objective of assembling this data is to provide a data base that potentially could be used to help determine: (1) Ground-water flow paths; (2) velocities and residence times of ground water; (3) the degree of vertical and lateral chemical heterogeneity of the ground-water system; and (4) chemical processes that affect the potential movement radionuclide species.