Ground-water flow to Death Valley, as inferred from the chemistry and geohydrology of selected springs in Death Valley National Park, California and Nevada

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | July 1st, 2001

Groundwater Quality in the Colorado River Basins, California

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | January 9th, 2013

Groundwater provides more than 40 percent of California’s drinking water. To protect this vital resource, the State of California created the Groundwater Ambient Monito

Groundwater provides more than 40 percent of California’s drinking water. To protect this vital resource, the State of California created the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program. The Priority Basin Project of the GAMA Program provides a comprehensive assessment of the State’s groundwater quality and increases public access to groundwater-quality information. Four groundwater basins along the Colorado River make up one of the study areas being evaluated. The Colorado River study area is approximately 884 square miles (2,290 square kilometers) and includes the Needles, Palo Verde Mesa, Palo Verde Valley, and Yuma groundwater basins (California Department of Water Resources, 2003). The Colorado River study area has an arid climate and is part of the Sonoran Desert. Average annual rainfall is about 3 inches (8 centimeters). Land use in the study area is approximately 47 percent (%) natural (mostly shrubland), 47% agricultural, and 6% urban. The primary crops are pasture and hay. The largest urban area is the city of Blythe (2010 population of 21,000). Groundwater in these basins is used for public and domestic water supply and for irrigation. The main waterbearing units are gravel, sand, silt, and clay deposited by the Colorado River or derived from surrounding mountains. The primary aquifers in the Colorado River study area are defined as those parts of the aquifers corresponding to the perforated intervals of wells listed in the California Department of Public Health database. Public-supply wells in the Colorado River basins are completed to depths between 230 and 460 feet (70 to 140 meters), consist of solid casing from the land surface to a depth of 130 of 390 feet (39 to 119 meters), and are screened or perforated below the solid casing. The main source of recharge to the groundwater systems in the Needles, Palo Verde Mesa, and Palo Verde Valley basins is the Colorado River; in the Yuma basin, the main source of recharge is from subsurface flow from the groundwater basins to the west. Groundwater discharge is primarily to pumping wells, evapotranspiration, and, locally, to the Colorado River.

Groundwater Quality in the Klamath Mountains, California

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | August 14th, 2014

The Klamath Mountains study unit covers more than 8,800 square miles and consists primarily of hard rock terranes characterized by high peaks and deep river gorges with r

The Klamath Mountains study unit covers more than 8,800 square miles and consists primarily of hard rock terranes characterized by high peaks and deep river gorges with relatively few groundwater basins (Bennett and others, 2014). Most of the study unit consists of metamorphic, ultramafic, and granitic rocks. The primary aquifer system sampled in the study unit, in contrast to most other study units evaluated by the GAMA Priority Basin Project, consisted of localized areas of fractured bedrock. The fracture systems may be interconnected or isolated, resulting in variability in water levels, well yields, and water quality on local and regional scales (California Department of Water Resources, 2003). The primary aquifer system in the study unit is defined as those parts of the aquifer corresponding to the open or perforated intervals of wells listed in the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) database.

Groundwater Resource Management Fundamentals: Groundwater Basin Connectivity

United Water Conservation District (UWCD) | May 14th, 2014

As Ventura County and the rest of the State of California continue to deal with drought conditions there is an increased interest and reliance on groundwater reso

As Ventura County and the rest of the State of California continue to deal with drought conditions there is an increased interest and reliance on groundwater resources. Over the past decade or so the CA Department of Water Resources and others have promoted water supply planning by watershed groups or other local entities, and this approach has generally been accepted by planners and stakeholders. In Ventura County, there is significant groundwater flow between defined groundwater basins both within and between watersheds, and stream flow in the dry seasons is commonly dependent on groundwater discharges to stream channels. Groundwater flow between connected subbasins has long been recognized in southern Ventura County, most notably in the groundwater basins that underlie the watersheds of the Santa Clara River and Calleguas Creek. The intent of this Open-File Report is to document the historical evolution of the concept of the hydrologic connectivity of groundwater basins in the Santa Clara River valley and the Oxnard Plain coastal area, and to summarize the underlying scientific data supporting the hydrologic connectivity principle. The idea of groundwater basin connectivity is not new, and in fact, predates the formation of United Water Conservation District (United), but is a concept that is embraced by United as a key tenet of their groundwater management activities. As a primary groundwater management entity for the Santa Clara River valley and Oxnard Plain area, United has extensive datasets supporting the concept of groundwater flow or movement (i.e., connectivity) between the subbasins in its jurisdiction. The current drought conditions being experienced in Ventura County have reinvigorated a desire by several entities to develop basin-wide or regional water supply management plans. Clearly, the hydrologic relationships between the groundwater basins are important factors for recognition in water supply management plans. The effects of groundwater extraction or wastewater discharge, for example, impact downgradient subbasins and respective stakeholders. Recognition of this important hydrologic relationship is fundamental to creating long-term sustainable groundwater resource management strategies. The current regulatory setting in California includes several attempts to “manage” groundwater resources or water resource, in general, but those attempts are often focused at a local level (e.g., Urban Water Management Plans, Agricultural Water Management Plans) that do not account for the regional nature of this resource. These “entity-specific” plans are not, by themselves, sufficient for water resource sustainability planning purposes as they frequently ignore or minimize the importance of the regional nature of the hydrologic system. This Open-File Report has been prepared to provide Ventura County water resource management agencies (e.g., Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency, Ventura County Watershed Protection District, United Water Conservation District) and local municipalities and businesses that may be stakeholders in the development of water resource management and sustainability plans a guiding framework for thinking about how the hydrologic systems in the Santa Clara River valley and the greater Oxnard Plain coastal area function.

Hydraulic-Property Estimates for Use With a Transient Ground-Water Flow Model of the Death Valley Regional Ground-Water Flow System, Nevada and California

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | July 2nd, 2001

The Death Valley regional ground-water flow system encompasses an area of about 43,500 square kilometers in southeastern California and southern Nevada, between latitu

The Death Valley regional ground-water flow system encompasses an area of about 43,500 square kilometers in southeastern California and southern Nevada, between latitudes 35° and 38°15′ north and longitudes 115° and 117° 45′ west. The study area is underlain by Quaternary to Tertiary basin-fill sediments and mafic-lava flows; Tertiary volcanic, volcaniclastic, and sedimentary rocks; Tertiary to Jurassic granitic rocks; Triassic to Middle Proterozoic carbonate and clastic sedimentary rocks; and Early Proterozoic igneous and metamorphic rocks. The rock assemblage in the Death Valley region is extensively faulted as a result of several episodes of tectonic activity. This study is comprised of published and unpublished estimates of transmissivity, hydraulic conductivity, storage coefficient, and anisotropy ratios for hydrogeologic units within the Death Valley region study area. Hydrogeologic units previously proposed for the Death Valley regional transient ground-water flow model, were recognized for the purpose of studying the distribution of hydraulic properties. Analyses of regression and covariance were used to assess if a relation existed between hydraulic conductivity and depth for most hydrogeologic units. Those analyses showed a weak, quantitatively indeterminate, relation between hydraulic conductivity and depth.

Hydraulic, Geochemical, and Thermal Monitoring of an Aquifer System in the Vicinity of Mammoth Lakes, Mono County, California, 2015–17

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | June 27th, 2019

Since 2014, the U.S. Geological Survey has been working in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management, Mono County, Ormat Technologies, Inc., and the Mammoth Communit

Since 2014, the U.S. Geological Survey has been working in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management, Mono County, Ormat Technologies, Inc., and the Mammoth Community Water District to design and implement a groundwater-monitoring program for the proposed Casa Diablo IV Geothermal Power Project in Long Valley Caldera, California, to characterize baseline groundwater-level, water-temperature, and water-chemistry conditions at dedicated monitoring wells and municipal supply wells. The publicly available data and the analyses provided here represent quality-assured and peer-reviewed information to help with the management of the thermal and non-thermal water resources beneath and in the vicinity of the town of Mammoth Lakes, California. The methods of data collection for continuous water levels and quarterly water-temperature profiles for two 600-foot-deep monitoring wells during 2016 through 2017 are discussed. Also discussed are the methods of water-sample collection and characterizations of the water chemistry in numerous wells in the multilayered aquifer system beneath Mammoth Lakes. Additionally, the methodology used to develop digital (mathematical) filters to remove or reduce the effects of barometric pressure and solid Earth tides on the continuous water-level records is discussed. Digitally filtered water levels for a 2017 flow test of a deep geothermal production well are described, and various aquifer responses observed during the flow test are discussed. These are further considered in a companion evaluation of potential physical and chemical influences on the water-level data collected during the flow test. The digitally filtered water-level data indicated that some hydraulic communication exists between the deep geothermal aquifer and shallow groundwater aquifer at the location of the flow test, northeast of Mammoth Lakes. Groundwater-chemistry data from three wells indicated that shallow groundwater naturally mixes with a small component of geothermal water along the northern periphery of the shallow aquifer system at Mammoth Lakes.

Hydrogeologic Controls and Geochemical Indicators of Groundwater Movement in the Niles Cone and Southern East Bay Plain Groundwater Subbasins, Alameda County, California

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | January 1st, 2018

Beginning in the 1970s, Alameda County Water District began infiltrating imported water through ponds in repurposed gravel quarries at the Quarry Lakes Regional Park, in

Beginning in the 1970s, Alameda County Water District began infiltrating imported water through ponds in repurposed gravel quarries at the Quarry Lakes Regional Park, in the Niles Cone groundwater subbasin, to recharge groundwater and to minimize intrusion of saline, San Francisco Bay water into freshwater aquifers. Hydraulic connection between distinct aquifers underlying Quarry Lakes allows water to recharge the upper aquifer system to depths of 400 feet below land surface, and the Deep aquifer to depths of more than 650 feet. Previous studies of the Niles Cone and southern East Bay Plain groundwater subbasins suggested that these two subbasins may be hydraulically connected. Characterization of storage capacities and hydraulic properties of the complex aquifers and the structural and stratigraphic controls on groundwater movement aids in optimal storage and recovery of recharged water and provides information on the ability of aquifers shared by different water management agencies to fulfill competing storage and extraction demands. The movement of recharge water through the Niles Cone groundwater subbasin from Quarry Lakes and the possible hydraulic connection between the Niles Cone and the southern East Bay Plain groundwater subbasins were investigated using interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR), water-chemistry, and isotopic data, including tritium/helium-3, helium-4, and carbon-14 age-dating techniques.

Hydrologic and hydrochemical framework, south-central Great Basin, Nevada-California, with special reference to the Nevada Test Site

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | July 1st, 1975

Intensely fractured Precambrian and Paleozoic carbonate and clastic rocks and block-faulted Cenozoic volcanic and sedimentary strata in the Nevada Test Site are divided

Intensely fractured Precambrian and Paleozoic carbonate and clastic rocks and block-faulted Cenozoic volcanic and sedimentary strata in the Nevada Test Site are divided into 10 hydrogeologic units. Three of these the lower clastic aquitard, the lower carbonate aquifer, and the tuff aquitard control the regional movement of ground water. The coefficients of fracture transmissibility of these rocks are, respectively, less than 1,000, 1,000 to 900,000, and less than 200 gallons per day per foot; interstitial permeability is negligible. Solution caverns are locally present in the carbonate aquifer, but regional movement of water is controlled by variations in fracture transmissibility and by structural juxtaposition of the aquifer and the lower clastic aquitard. Water circulates freely to depths of at least 1,500 feet beneath the top of the aquifer and up to 4,200 feet below land surface. Synthesis of hydrogeologic, hydrochemical, and isotopic data suggests that an area of at least 4,500 square miles (including 10 intermontane valleys) is hydraulically integrated into one ground-water basin, the Ash Meadows basin, by interbasin movement of ground water through the widespread carbonate aquifer. Discharge from this basin a minimum of about 17,000 acre-feet annually occurs along a fault-controlled spring line at Ash Meadows in east-central Amargosa Desert. Intrabasin movement of water between Cenozoic aquifers and the lower carbonate aquifer is controlled by the tuff aquitard, the basal Cenozoic hydrogeologic unit. Such movement significantly influences the chemistry of water in the carbonate aquifer. Ground-water velocity through the tuff aquitard in Yucca Flat is less than 1 foot per year. Velocity through the lower carbonate aquifer ranges from an estimated 0.02 to 200 feet per day, depending upon geographic position within the flow system. Within the Nevada Test Site, ground water moves southward and southwestward toward Ash Meadows.

Hydrologic Components for Model Development, Chapter C of Death Valley Regional Ground-Water Flow System, Nevada and California—Hydrogeologic Framework and Transient Ground-Water Flow Model

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | July 1st, 2004

Interbasin flow in the Great Basin with special reference to the southern Funeral Mountains and the source of Furnace Creek springs, Death Valley, California, U.S.

Journal of Hydrology (Elsevier) | May 5th, 2009

Interbasin flow in the Great Basin has been established by scientific studies during the past century. While not occurring uniformly between all basins, its occurrence is

Interbasin flow in the Great Basin has been established by scientific studies during the past century. While not occurring uniformly between all basins, its occurrence is common and is a function of the hydraulic gradient between basins and hydraulic conductivity of the intervening rocks. The Furnace Creek springs in Death Valley, California are an example of large volume springs that are widely accepted as being the discharge points of regional interbasin flow. The flow path has been interpreted historically to be through consolidated Paleozoic carbonate rocks in the southern Funeral Mountains. This work reviews the preponderance of evidence supporting the concept of interbasin flow in the Death Valley region and the Great Basin and addresses the conceptual model of pluvial and recent recharge [Nelson, S.T., Anderson, K., Mayo, A.L., 2004. Testing the interbasin flow hypothesis at Death Valley, California. EOS 85, 349; Anderson, K., Nelson, S., Mayo, A., Tingey, D., 2006. Interbasin flow revisited: the contribution of local recharge to high-discharge springs, Death Valley, California. Journal of Hydrology 323, 276–302] as the source of the Furnace Creek springs. We find that there is insufficient modern recharge and insufficient storage potential and permeability within the basin-fill units in the Furnace Creek basin for these to serve as a local aquifer. Further, the lack of high sulfate content in the spring waters argues against significant flow through basin-fill sediments and instead suggests flow through underlying consolidated carbonate rocks. The maximum temperature of the spring discharge appears to require deep circulation through consolidated rocks; the Tertiary basin fill is of insufficient thickness to generate such temperatures as a result of local fluid circulation. Finally, the stable isotope data and chemical mass balance modeling actually support the interbasin flow conceptual model rather than the alternative presented in Nelson et al. [Nelson, S.T., Anderson, K., Mayo, A.L., 2004. Testing the interbasin flow hypothesis at Death Valley, California. EOS 85, 349] and Anderson et al. [Anderson, K., Nelson, S., Mayo, A., Tingey, D., 2006. Interbasin flow revisited: the contribution of local recharge to high-discharge springs, Death Valley, California. Journal of Hydrology 323, 276– 302]. In light of these inconsistencies, interbasin flow is the only readily apparent explanation for the large spring discharges at Furnace Creek and, in our view, is the likely explanation for most large volume, low elevation springs in the Great Basin. An understanding of hydrogeologic processes that control the rate and direction of ground-water flow in eastern and central Nevada is necessary component of regional water-resource planning and management of alluvial and bedrock aquifers.