Document Details

Source, Movement, and Age of Ground Water in a Coastal California Aquifer

Peter Martin, John A. Izbicki | July 11th, 1996


Understanding the contribution of recharge from different sources is important to the management of ground-water supply in coastal aquifers in California especially where water-supply or water-quality problems have developed as a result of ground-water pumping. In areas where water levels have changed greatly as a result of pumping and no longer reflect predevelopment conditions, an analysis of isotopic data can provide information about the source, movement, and age of ground water that is not readily obtained from a more traditional analysis of ground-water data This information can be used to develop management strategies that incorporate the availability of natural and artificial recharge to control water-level declines and water-quality degradation.

In this study, the ratios of the stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen were used to determine the source and trace the movement of ground water in the Santa Clara-Calleguas basin, Ventura County, California Tritium and carbon-14 data were used to estimate the age (time since recharge) of ground water.

Keywords

coastal aquifers, Groundwater Exchange, interbasin flow