Slug tests in wells screened across the water table: some additional considerations

The majority of slug tests done at sites of shallow groundwater contamination are performed in wells screened across the water table and are affected by mechanisms beyond those considered in the standard slug-test models. These additional mechanisms give rise to a number of practical issues that are yet to be fully resolved; four of these are addressed here. The wells in which slug tests are performed were rarely installed for that purpose, so the well design can result in problematic (small signal to noise ratio) test data. The suitability of a particular well design should thus always be assessed prior to field testing. In slug tests of short duration, it can be difficult to identify which portion of the test represents filter-pack drainage and which represents formation response; application of a mass balance can help confirm that test phases have been correctly identified. A key parameter required for all slug test models is the casing radius. However, in this setting, the effective casing radius (borehole radius corrected for filter-pack porosity), not the nominal well radius, is required; this effective radius is best estimated directly from test data. Finally, although conventional slug-test models do not consider filter-pack drainage, these models will yield reasonable hydraulic conductivity estimates when applied to the formation-response phase of a test from an appropriately developed well.