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flushing hydrocarbons from the soil and contaminating groundwater within the channel <br /> deposit. <br /> In order to satisfy regulatory agency questions about the maximum depth of soil and <br /> groundwater contamination at the site and install a well that might be useful in later <br /> groundwater remediation,Upgradient drilled well GT-10 in 1999. The well is located on <br /> the axis of the Modesto channel and penetrated highly contaminated soil in the lower part <br /> of the Modesto Formation at a depth of 45-60 feet. Groundwater samples have been <br /> collected from this well on several occasions since then,and TPH-d concentrations are <br /> consistently greater than 25,000 parts per billion. Hence,this well is optimally located for <br /> the purpose of extracting contaminated water from the channel. The purpose of conducting <br /> a pumping test in GT-10 is to deter nine how effective groundwater extraction from it <br /> would be in containing and/or remediating the groundwater plume. <br /> 3.0 COMPUTER SIMULATION <br /> Due to its limited thickness and lateral extent,the volume of the Modesto Aquifer is <br /> rather small. Furthermore,the normal static water level in the area is 50 feet or greater. <br /> Therefore, during much of the year,the aquifer contains little or no water.During the <br /> spring months, however, when the static water level rises to a typical depth of 45 feet, the <br /> basal 5 to 7 feet of the channel are saturated and hydrocarbon flushing takes place. <br /> Therefore, using the computer program VisualModflow®, we simulated a pumping test <br /> of GT-10 during the month of May, using an initial water depth of 40 feet. The simulation <br /> assumes that the Modesto Aquifer is unconfined (storage coefficient=0.01)but not <br /> perched, although the possibility of a perched water table cannot be entirely ruled out by <br /> groundwater monitoring data. <br /> A pumping rate of 10 gallons per minute (gpm)was used in the first simulation,but at <br /> this rate GT-10 quickly went dry before the effect of pumping could be felt at any of the <br /> surrounding observation wells. The simulation was re-run using a pumping rate of 3 gpm, <br /> producing the time-drawdown curves shown in Figure 3. The curves predict that the <br /> water level in GT-10 will be lowered by approximately 6.5 feet within the first hour of <br /> the test, and will then stabilize as withdrawal from the pumping well is balanced by <br /> recharge fron other portions of the aquifer. Drawdown at distances of 20 and 90 feet <br /> (represented by GT-1 and GT-2 in Figure 3)approach 3 and 2 feet in the simulation. <br /> When pumping is terminated after 4 hours,the water level recovers to the initial level <br /> within 30 minutes. <br /> Figure 4 shows the expected cone of depression after 4 hours. Due to the linear geometry <br /> of the aquifer,the drawdown is not actually cone-shaped, and no drawdown is predicted <br /> to occur beyond the margins of the channel because of the low permeability of the <br /> overbank sediment. A drawdown of up to 2 feet is predicted over most of the diesel- <br /> impacted area and between 6 and 12 inches of drawdown are predicted farther away. The <br /> simulation predicts that no response would be felt in the Riverbank Aquifer. <br />