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Working with WhAEM: demonstration of a capture zone delineation for a city wellfield in a valley fill glacial outwash aquifer for wellhead protection
Citation:
Kraemer, S. AND H. Haitjema. Working with WhAEM: demonstration of a capture zone delineation for a city wellfield in a valley fill glacial outwash aquifer for wellhead protection. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Center for Environmental Assessment, Washington, DC, EPA/600/B-18/089, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
The EPA Office of Research and Development has committed to developing and supporting computer software to support the EPA Source Water Protection Program as authorized by the Safe Drinking Water Act and implemented by states, tribes, municipalities, communities, in the delineation of the land area that could potentially contribute pollutants to the pumping well. The WhAEM software system includes a visual mapping computer aided design interface that is informed by mathematical solutions for groundwater flow and advective transport using the analytic element method. Public water systems that are empowered with knowledge of their well source water area can use progressive management to protect the long term integrity of their drinking water source. The latest release is compatible with the latest Windows operating system for personal computers.
Description:
The purpose of this document is to demonstrate through an example study the use of the ground water geohydrology computer program WhAEM for Windows, which was developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Wellhead Analytic Element Model (WhAEM) is an open source groundwater flow model designed to facilitate capture zone delineation and protection area mapping in support of the states' and tribes' Wellhead Protection Programs (WHPP) and Source Water Assessment Planning (SWAP) for public water well supplies in the United States. Program operation and modeling practice is covered in a series of progressively more complex representations of a well field tapping a glacial outwash aquifer. WhAEM provides an interactive computer environment for design of protection areas based on simple capture zone delineations (e.g., radius methods, well-in-uniform-flow solutions) and geohydrologic modeling methods. Protection areas are designed and overlain upon U.S. Geological Survey Digital Line Graph (DLGs), Digital Raster Graphic (DRGs) or other electronic base maps. Geohydrologic modeling for steady pumping wells, including the influence of hydrological boundaries, such as rivers, recharge, no-flow boundaries, and inhomogeneity zones, is accomplished using the analytic element method. Reverse gradient tracelines of known residence time emanating from the pumping center are used to delineate the capture zones. WhAEM has import and export utilities for DXF files and Shapefiles. WhAEM has on-line help and tutorials. Install scripts and base maps are available for download from the EPA Center for Exposure Assessment Modeling (CEAM) web site.
URLs/Downloads:
WORKINGWHAEM FINAL.PDF (PDF, NA pp, 12214.171 KB, about PDF)https://www.epa.gov/ceam/working-whaem-demonstration-capture-zone-delineation-city-wellfield-valley-fill-glacial