Deep groundwater contains dissolved gases that may come out of solution if
the water pressure is lowered. Water pressures are often decreased down to
atmospheric pressure when water is withdrawn from deep boreholes and drifts
in the bedrock, for example, in investigations regarding nuclear waste dis
posal. Groundwater degassing may then contribute to the development of a lo
cal, unsaturated zone around the borehole or drift, which may affect inflow
and, as a consequence, the outcome of hydraulic and tracer tests in fractu
red rock. Laboratory experiments with gas-saturated water in rock fracture
replicas have demonstrated that degassing causes considerable hydraulic con
ductivity reduction under certain conditions. Degassing has also been hypot
hesized to be the cause of observed flow reductions in the field; however,
supporting field experiments have so far been lacking. We report results th
at constitute the first field support of the development of an unsaturated
zone and, as a consequence, hydraulic conductivity reduction due to groundw
ater degassing around a borehole. The borehole tests were conducted approxi
mately 450 m below the groundwater table at the Aspo Hard Rock Laboratory i
n southeastern Sweden. No hydraulic conductivity reductions were observed a
t gas contents of about 1%, whereas a 50% reduction in hydraulic conductivi
ty was observed at a gas content of 13%. Formal hypothesis testing, based o
n all available field and laboratory degassing tests, supports degassing as
the actual cause of the observed hydraulic conductivity reduction at the h
igher gas content. We also show analytically that hydraulic conductivity re
ductions due to degassing may occur at much lower gas contents around drift
s than around boreholes.