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Managed Aquifer Recharge and Source Water Protection of Drinking Water Wells: An Incised Valley Fill Case Study
Citation:
Kraemer, S. Managed Aquifer Recharge and Source Water Protection of Drinking Water Wells: An Incised Valley Fill Case Study. MODFLOW and More 2024: AI, Global Change, and the Future of Groundwater Modeling, Princeton, NJ, June 02 - 05, 2024.
Impact/Purpose:
The presentation of this progress report on a research study, either as a poster or oral presentation, will solicit valued feedback. The demonstrated modeling approach might lead to practical tools for Regions and States to partially meet the SDWA goals of the Sole Source Aquifer and Wellhead Protection.
Description:
I investigated the practice of managed aquifer recharge (MAR) of mountain front runoff in the Central Valley of California, USA, as a strategy to improve groundwater storage and availability to community drinking water wells. The area of interest of the modeling study is the Fresno Aquifer, a registered EPA Sole Source Aquifer meriting Safe Drinking Water Act source water protections of a primary source of drinking water for residents. Previous investigations have indicated that certain geological settings provide a fast path for infiltration to reach the water table, namely, the incised valley fill (IVF) in the Kings River alluvial fan. Airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data confirms a high percentage of coarse-grained sediments in the selected IVF location. The excess spring snowmelt waters of the Sierra Mountains released to the Kings River during wet years might be available for MAR and directed to the IVF. Existing basin groundwater flow models of the Central Valley and predevelopment and historical calibrations provided the hydrogeological conceptual model and boundary conditions (BCs). I constructed a multi-domain, multi-level, analytic element groundwater model using AnAqSim (www.anaqsim.com) that includes the influences of broad far-field BCs, detailed near field pumping, and the selected IVF recharge site and hypothetical community drinking water wells. The domains (anisotropic) and levels (stepped base elevations) allow the testing of the influence of geology of increasing complexity on the advective flow system. The AnAqSim models are used to test understanding of potential zones contributing recharge to pumping wells, and the challenges of delineating capture zone envelopes based on average residence times in this setting.
