Instructor Biography

• Jeffery J. Jensen, PE
• Homepage: http://faculty.unlv.edu/jensen
• email: jefferyjjensen@gmail.com

GEOL674 - Hydrogeology

Syllabus

• Instructor: Michael Nicholl, email: michael.nicholl@unlv.edu, voice: 702-895-4006, voice: 702-895-4616, website: http://faculty.unlv.edu/mjnicho/michaeljnicholl.htm
• 450-Syl-FALL-2010-August23-2010.pdf

Textbook

• Applied Hydrogeology, 4th Edition by C.W. Fetter
• Cadillac Desert
• Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems Manual (EPA/625/R-00/008 Feb 2002) pdf
• Field Hydrogeology: A Guide for Site Investigations and Report Preparation by John E. Moore.

Instructor Notes

• Week 01 - Instructor Notes
• Week 02 - Instructor Notes
• Week 03 - Instructor Notes Porous Media
• Week 04 - Instructor Notes Flow in Porous Media
• Week 08 - Instructor Notes

Meetings with Dr. Nicholl on Tuesday, 2:30pm

1. #01 (27 Sept 2011) Questions
   • How do you delineate a basin, not discussed in textbook chapters 1 and 2 of Applied Hydrogeology
   • Is there such a thing as ground water basins like there is for surface flow basins?
   • ASTM standard for delineating watershed basins?
   • Does the geology dept have a copy of the ASTM standards? No, check the library.
2. #02 (11 Oct 2011) Questions
   • When creating Thiessen Polygons, what happens if my watershed boundary is larger, what do I do with the no data area?
   • How do you calculate the average depth of precipitation?

Homework

• Assignment 01
• Assignment 02

Homework Week#01

1. Read Chapter 1 and 2 of Applied Hydrogeology, 4th Edition by C.W. Fetter
2. Read Introduction of Cadillac Desert
3. Assignment 01
   • UTM Zone 11 units meters
   • GEOL474_2006_A01.pdf
   • HW01Precip.csv
   • HW01Precip.xlsx
   • Questions
     • Area of watershed (acres):
       • lecture notes - surface water basins are defined by topographic divides but doesn't tell how to deliniate the basin
       • lecture notes - ground-water divide, crest of water table or potentiometric surface. Hard to locate (muted topography) and not fixed in time.
       • 
       • Area = 35400871 meters² (1 acre = 4047 meters²)
       • Area = 8747 acres
     • Total volume of precipitation (ft³/year):
       • Total Volume Precip = Σ(Rainfall * Thiessen Polygons Area)
       • Station ID 5
         • (8.9 inches/year) * (1908544 meters²) * (3.28 ft/meter) * (3.28 ft/meter) * (1 ft/12 inches) = 15228552 ft³/year
       • Recommend using Thiessen Polygons instead of Isohyetal rainfall lines
       • ArcToolbox → Analysis Tools → Proximity → Create Thiessen Polygons
       • What if my watershed boundary is outside the Thiessen Polygon boundary?
       • 
       • 
     • Average depth of precipitation (inches/year):
     • Memorandum with attachments should concisely address the relevant issues and refer directly to the supporting documentation. Justify procedure and choices used to estimate the average annual precipitation in the Quilici Creek watershed. Clearly state potential sources of uncertainty that may affect the clients decision making process. Cite references, show work.
   • Background
     • Quilici Creek is enclosed in the larger Salmon Falls. Idaho, Nevada subbase (HUC8) per ftp://nhdftp.usgs.gov/NHD_HUC/huc8.tar.gz from the US Dept of Agriculture - Natural Resources Conservation Service: Watershed Boundary Dataset.
     • 
     • all rain guages are located within the USGS 24K Scale Quad Name: Blanchard Mountain, USGS_QD_ID: 41114-F6 (download shapefile usgs24q.zip). Download Pre-packaged NED 1/3 arc second in ArcGrid format, n42w115. Download from UNLV, n42w115/64965408.zip
     • all Rain guages are located in Elko County Nevada

Homework Week#02

• Solution Prob2.1.docx

1. A sample of soil with a known porosity (n) of 28% loses 85.3 cm³ of water during oven drying. Assuming an initial saturation of 73% calculate the total sample volume (V_t) in cm³.
2. A sample being tested in a falling head permeameter has a cross sectional area of 60.3 cm² and a length of 19.7 cm. Water flows into the sample from a burette that has a radius of 1.0 cm. At time = 0, elevation of the water in the burette is 68.0 cm, after 1847 seconds the water level decreases to 14.5 cm. Calculate the hydraulic conductivity in both cm/s and ft/day.
3. Given the following information regarding steady flow through a constant head permeameter, determine the total volume of water in cm³ that will flow through this system in 1 hour and 15 minutes. K = 10 cm/day, n = 0.4, length = 20 cm, cross-sectional area = 100 cm², upstream head = 15 cm, downstream head = 10 cm.
4. Over a 40 hour period, 12.3 gallons of water are added to a standard land pan (47.5" diameter) in order to maintain the water level at a constant depth of 8.0". What is the evaporation rate in mm/day? and how much heat energy in Calories/day is required to evaporate that amount of water from the pan as a whole? Assume that the density of water is 1.0 g/cm³.
5. A 67 cm wide rectangular weir is installed in a small mountain creek. A data logger at the site collects flow rates at 1 minute intervals. In the course of a single day, 1.046 x 10⁶ gallons of water cross the weir. What is the daily average flow rate in ft³/s? and what is the average height of water behind the weir in ft?

• Assignment 02 - pdf

HW03 - Grad Assign 01

• Graduate Assignment G01 - pdf
• The Las Vegas Valley is faced with a growing demand for water that already exceeds the natural resources. In no more than 1 single spaced page you are to suggest a strategy for meeting our future water needs. Any solution proposed must be within the realm of practicality. Be sure to state the benefits of your approach and the drawbacks, including potential obstacles. You can discuss this assignment with anyone that you wish; however, the final product must be your own work. Please cite references where appropriate.

1. Proposal - Recycle Water and Pay Arizona and/or California for additional water from Colorado River
• Water is not the primary issue in Clark County, but cheap/free and clean/potable is the issue. There is enough dirty water in the valley to sustain us. The main problem is it is expensive to clean water. Then again, it is also expensive to pump water. So a cost comparison needs to be done, comparing the cost to clean dirty water vs the cost to pump clean water from a lower elevation (Lake Mead) to Las Vegas. If the cost is similar, I recommend installing several smaller treatment plants around the valley. Then the water is reintroduced into the water system. This is know as "toilet to tap" by those who are against it. In any case, the water is recycled/reused and thus lessen the demand of clean water from the Colorado River.
  
  The second idea is to purchase additional water from Arizona, California or Mexico. This would allow Las Vegas to continue to grow and help fund new or existing desalinaization plants in Arizona, California and Mexico.
• Background
  • What does the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) charge for an acre-feet of water?
  • sent an email to bcoowaterops@usbr.gov on 11 April 2012 asking for this info. Also filled out the online form at http://www.usbr.gov/main/comments.cfm asking for this info.
  • BOR charges $0.50 per acre-foot of water above Hoover Dam and $0.25 per acre-foot of water below Hoover Dam. Compare to Boulder City which charges ~ $700 an acre-foot and LVVWD which charges ~ $1400 an acre-foot
  • BOR diversions for commercial agricultural use are not charged even the minimal fee
  • Margot Selig, Water Administration Group, Lower Colorado Region, US Bureau of Reclamation, Boulder City NV, email: MSelig@usbr.gov
  • LVVWD rates and usage thresholds
  • Boulder City Residential Water Rates
  • lowest tier (1,000-8,000 gallons/month): $1.44 per 1000 gallons water
  • highest tier (60,000 and above gallons/month): $2.25 per 1000 gallons water
  • Boulder city Hydrant Meter Application
  • 1 acre-foot = 325851 gallons
  • LVVWD allocates 6000 gallons of water per month per meter or 72000 gallons per year, so 4.5 meters per acre foot of water.
  • How much water is pumped from the groundwater? Does the State of Nevada Division of Water Resources collect data or meter well pump data?
  • Since we are allocated 300,000 acre feet from the Colorado River, this means 66,666 residents use rely on the Colorado river for water. Where does the rest of the water come from since we have almost 2 million people living in Clark County (see 2011 Local Population Data from Clark County Comprehensive Planning Demographics
  • California is entitled to 50% of the water from the Colorado River, Arizona 46% and Nevada 4% (see United States Supreme Court case Arizona v. California). As long as at least 7,500,000 acre feet (9.3 km³) of water is available from the Colorado River, California is allocated 4,400,000 acre ft (5.4 km³), Nevada 300,000 acre ft and Arizona the remainder. What is the unit of time? Is it 300,000 acre feet of water per year?
  • Bureau of Reclamation - Law of the River "...the Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover suggested the basin be divided into an upper and lower half, with each basin having the right to develop and use 7.5 million acre-feet (maf) of river water annually."
  • U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Lower Colorado Region Arizona, California, Nevada and Mexico Forecast of End of Year Consumptive Use provides a list of the Nevada water users
    • Robert B. Griffith Water Project (SNWS)
    • Lake Mead National Recreation Area
    • Basic Management Inc (BMI)
    • City of Henderson (BMI Delivery)
    • City of Boulder City at Hoover Dam
    • Nevada State Dept of Fish and Game
    • Pacific Coast Building Products Inc
    • Boulder Canyon Project is this the Boulder Canyon Project Act of 1928
    • Southern Californa Edison
    • Big Bend Water District
    • Fort Mojave Indian Reservation
• Benefits
  1. Las Vegas Valley can continue growing
  2. Arizona/California get additional income to fund other water projects such as desalinazation plant at Yuma AZ or Pacific Ocean.
• Drawbacks and potential obstacles
  1. Arizona/California may already have the water allocated so they might not be able to sell the water to Nevada
2. Proposal 2: Used reclaimed/dirty/partially treated water for irrigation
3. Proposal 3: Fund desalination plant
4. Proposal 4: Release control of BLM land from Federal Govt to local governments
5. Proposal 5: Use water from public fire hydrants (unmetered). See LVVWD Private Use of Public Fire Hydrants

HW04 - Assign 03

1. Your task is to estimate how long it would take for a dissolved chemical entering the aquifer at the abandoned well to move off the property and where that contaminant would most likely cross the property line?
2. Given
• hydraulic conductivity, K = 2.4 x 10^-4 cm/s (0.00024 cm/s)
• porosity (n % or φ) = 23%
3. Equation
• see problem on p. 144
• Dupuit Equation q' = K (h₁² - h₂² / 2L (Applied Hydrogeology by C.W. Fetter, 4th Ed, p. 141)
• q' = flow per unit width, ft² per day
• K = 0.00000024 m/s = 0.20736 meters/day
• h₁ = 0.2 ft (0.06096 m)
• h₂ = 0 ft
• L = 357 ft (109 m)
4. solution
• q' = 0.000003535 m₂/day
• v_x = q' / n_eh₁ = 0.000252 m/day
• travel 109 m will take (109 m / 0.000252) = 432324 days (1184 years)
5. Assignment 03 - pdf
6. How do I measure depth to water in the artifical wells installed at the Lily Fong Geoscience (LFG) building?
7. Where will the contaminant most likely cross the property line?
• "The position of the water table often follows the general shape of the topography, although the water-table relief is not as great as the topographic relief. At all depths below the water table, the rock is generally saturated with water so long as it has interconnected voids." (Applied Hydrogeology by C. W. Fetter, 4th Ed, p. 94)
8. What is porosity and how is it used? see Porosity and void ratio, basically porosity is the percentage of voids in a soil, the higher the porosity the higher the amount of voids in the soil. Knowing the porosity of the soil, we can evaluate the potential volume of water the soil may contain.
9. What is hydraulic conductivity (permeability) and how is it used?
10. Topographic Site Map
• Autodesk Civil 3D 2012 A03SiteMap.dwg
• Points File: GEOL474A03.csv
• 
11. Water Table and Potentiometric Surface
• "Potentiometric Surface for a confined aquifer is the surface representative of the level to which water will rise in a well cased to the aquifer. (The term piezometric was used in the past, but it has now been replaced by potentiometric.) If the potentiometric surface of an aquifer is above the land surface, a flowing artesian well may occur. Water will flow from the well casing without need for a pump." (Applied Hydrogeology by C.W. Fetter, p. 96)
• Points File: GEOL474A03-wellheight.csv
• Autodesk Civil 3D 2012 A03SiteMapWell.dwg
• 
• 

HW05 - Assign 04

1. Assignment 04 - pdf

HW06 - Grad Assign 02

1. Assignment 02 - pdf

HW07 - Assign 05

1. Assignment 05 - pdf

ASTM Standards

• "The ASTM standards are voluntary in the sense that the organization has no authority to require their use. In fact, many states have specific requirements for such practices as design and installation of ground-water monitoring wells that are also covered by ASTM standards. The state requirements do not necessarily conform to those published by ASTM. At the present time there are in excess of 750 ASTM standard practices and guides that are applicable to the ground-water industry." (Applied Hydrogeology, 4th Edition by C. W. Fetter, p. 18)
• ASTM D6089 - 97(2010) Standard Guide for Documenting a Groundwater Sampling Event
• ASTM D4750 - 87(2001) Standard Test Method for Determining Subsurface Liquid Levels in a Borehole or Monitoring Well (Observation Well) (Withdrawn 2010)
• ASTM D5903 - 96(2006) Standard Guide for Planning and Preparing for a Groundwater Sampling Event

Evaporation

• Can you have evaporation when it is raining?
• Can you have evaporation in the night?
• Is there data which shows hourly evaporation instead of daily?
• What is the evaporation used for?
• WikiAnswers - How much water evaporates from a pool?
• "Pan evaporation is a measurement that combines or integrates the effects of several climate elements: temperature, humidity, rain fall, drought dispersion, solar radiation, and wind. Evaporation is greatest on hot, windy, dry days; and is greatly reduced when the air is cool, calm, and humid." (Wikipedia - Pan evaporation)
• 
• Applied Hydrogeology, 4th Edition by C.W. Fetter, p. 61
  Prob2.1.docx
  

Evapotranspiration - total water loss

• Evapotranspiration is the water loss due to free-water evaporation, plant transpiration and soil-moisture evaporation. (see Applied Hydrogeology, 4th Edition by C.W. Fetter, p. 28)
• Does evapotranspiration include infiltration into the ground?
• "In an urbanized watershed, one would naturally expect that the flood flows would increase as previous soil is replaced by impervious pavement. A surprising effect of urbanization is that in dry periods total runoff appears to be reduced (Ferguson and Suckling 1990). Thus, urbanization has actually increased evapotranspiration, even as the vegetative cover has decreased, perhaps due to the pattern of vegetation surrounded by pavement. Heat from the pavement areas causes overlying air to warm and rise, which can increase the evapotranspiration from the vegetate areas." (Applied Hydrogeology, 4th by C.W. Fetter, p. 31-32). Reference: Ferguson, B.K., and P.W. Suckling. 1990. Changing rainfall-runoff relationships in the urbanizing Peachtree Creek watershed, Atlanta, Georgia. Water Resources Bulletin 26:313-22.
• 

Water Table

• We can make the following observations, of which items 4 and 5 pertain primarily to humid regions. (Applied Hydrogeology by C. W. Fetter, 4th Ed, p. 94)
1. In the absence of ground-water flow, the water table will be flat
2. A sloping water table indicates the ground water is flowing
3. Ground-water discharge zones are in topographical low spots
4. The water table has the same general shape as the surface topography
5. Ground water generally flows away from topographical high spots and toward topographic lows.
• "When making a water-table map, it is ideal if all the wells have an open borehole or a well screen at the depth of the water table." (Applied Hydrogeology by C. W. Fetter, 4th Ed, p. 99)

Water Properties

• 1 L water = 1 kg water ( 1 liter of water equals 1 kilogram of water)
• 8.34 lbs/gallon water = 1 kg/L water
• Density ρ of Water
  • ρ = mass per unit volume expressed as g/L or kg/m³ in SI units and as lb_m/ft³ in U.S. customary units (Wastewater Engineering Treatment and Reuse by Metcalf & Eddy, p. 56)
  • ρ = 1000 kg/m³ at 4°C (Wastewater Engineering Treatment and Reuse by Metcalf & Eddy, p. 1741)
  • "The density of domestic wastewater, which does not contain significant amounts of industrial waste, is essentially the same as that of water at the same temperature." (Wastewater Engineering Treatment and Reuse by Metcalf & Eddy, p. 56)

Hydraulic Conductivity (Permeability)

• Compaction of soil decreases the permeability of the soil which inhibits flow of water through the soil
• 
• 

Porosity and Void Ratio

• porosity (n % or φ) of the soil is the percent of void space
  n, % = 100(V_v/V_t
  V_v is volume of the voids/open space/empty space/pores (L³, cm³ or m³)
  V_t is the total volume of the sample (L³, cm³ or m³)
• voids/open space/pores can be occupied by either a liquid (water, oil, NAPL-nonaqueous phase liquids which are organic substances that are only slightly soluble in water such as coal tar) or gas (air)
• void ratio (e) is the ratio of the volume of voids to the volume of solids
  e = V_v/V_s
• Geotechnical Aspects of Pavements Reference Manual
• Soil Block Diagram
• 
• Example void ratio of materials
• Marily, G. de. Quantitative Hydrogeology. Academic Press. 1986
• 
• 
• "Pumice, a glassy rock that is formed from a magma with a very high gas content, can have a porosity of as high as 87% ..." (Applied Hydrogeology 4th Ed, C.W. Fetter, p. 78)
• void ratio is high then it is loose soils and fluids can easily flow in it, that is high conductivity. Exception is clay, "clays typically have very low hydraulic conductivity (due to their pore throat radii) but also have very high porosities (due to the structured nature of clay minerals), which means clays can hold a large volume of water per volume of bulk material, but they do not release water rapidly and therefore have low hydraulic conductivity." (Porosity)
• void ratio is low then it is a dense soil and difficult for fluids to flow in it, that is a low conductivity
• Is void ratio always between 0 and 1? No, void ratio can exceed 100% according to Dr. Nicholl
• What is the ASTM standard to measure porosity in a soil?
• Can I imply a soil which has high Porosity will have water? So, I research soils reports and find porosity of soil, the soil with the highest porosity will be the best location for a well?

Ways to regulate pollutants using NPDES

• National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) is a permitting program based on uniform technological minimum standards for each discharger. Regulation was established by the Clean Water Act (CWA) (Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972) (Wastewater Engineering Treatment and Reuse by Metcalf & Eddy, p. 5)
• Regulate by Concentration
• Regulate by Load

Drinking Water Contaminants

What is in the water that needs to be treated?

textbooks

• WaterWastewaterTreatment.pdf
• WaterWasteWaterCalcManual2nd.pdf