Pressure tests can be conducted at individual screens or simultaneously at all screens, making the system useful for hydrogeologic testing in a wide variety of tests. Design considerations include quantity of data, quality of data, cost of data versus budget, oversight instruments, geologic and hydrogeologic conditions, geochemical conditions, drilling methods, disturbance, life-cycle costs, completion method, and the length of screens. This multiport system is also in extensive use in the commercial sector, nationally and internationally. Orange County, California uses the system extensively for water quality, detection of seawater intrusion, and other purposes and Yucca Mountain uses the system for percolation studies. The system can be used in large and small aquifers, but the confining units must allow proper drilling to prevent cross contamination.
Some states prevent drilling through multiple aquifers under certain conditions.
Cost comparison information for some past projects is available on the Westbay Internet site. Typically, a well should be at least 100 feet deep to see a return on cost. SRS has developed a simple, straightforward methodology to reduce the amount of ground-water data needed for statistical analysis. Relatively mature ground-water remediation programs at SRS have generated vast quantities of ground water data. This methodology has been applied to ground water data from seepage basins.