Automated system for monitoring groundwater levels at an experimental low-level waste disposal site

One of the major problems with disposing of low-level solid wastes in the eastern United States is the potential for water-waste interactions and leachate migration. To monitor groundwater fluctuations and the frequency with which groundwater comes into contact with a group of experimental trenches, work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Engineered Test Facility (ETF) has employed a network of water level recorders that feed information from 15 on-site wells to a centralized data recording system. The purpose of this report is to describe the monitoring system being used and to document the computer programs that have been developed to process the data. Included in this report are data based on more than 2 years of water level information for ETF wells 1 through 12 and more than 6 months of data from all 15 wells. The data thus reflect both long-term trends as well as a large number of short-term responses to individual storm events. The system was designed to meet the specific needs of the ETF, but the hardware and computer routines have generic application to a variety of groundwater monitoring situations. 5 references.