PUB00070

• Year: 1998
• Title: Ground Water and Surface Water A Single Resource U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1139
• CWCB Section: Interstate & Federal
• Author: T.C. Winter, J.W. Harvey, O.L. Franke, W.M. Alley
• Description: Overview of current understandimg of interaction of ground water and surface water in terms of quality and quantity
• Publications - Doc Type: Historical

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DOWNSTREAM DISTANCE, IN FEET

A study in Colorado indicated that hyporheic exchange
in mountain streams is caused to a large extent by the irreg-
ular topography of the streambed, which creates pools and
riffles characteristic of mountain streams. Ground water enters
streams most readily at the upstream end of deep pools,
and stleam water flows into the subsurface beneath and to
the side of steep sections of streams (riffles) (Figure H-2),
Channel irregularity, therefore, is an important control on the
location of ground-water inflow to streams and on the size of
the hyporheic zone in mountain streams because changes in
slope determine the iength and depth of hyporheic fiow paths,

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to stream
Stream to
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Figure H-2. In mountain streams characterized
by pools and riffles, such as at Saint Kevin Gulch
in Colorado, inflow of water from the hyporheic
zone to the stream was greatest at the downstream
end of riffles, (Modified from Harvey, J. w., and
Bencala, K.E., 1993, The effect of streambed
topography on surface-subsurface water exchange
in mountain catchments: Water Resources
Research, v, 29, p, 89-98.)

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Chalk Creek, Colorado, (Photograph by Briant Kimball.)

The source and fate of metal contaminants in streams
receiving drainage from abandoned mines can be determined
by using solute tracers, In addition to surface drainage from
mines, a recent study of Chalk Creek in Colorado indicated
that contaminants were being brought to the stream by
ground-water inflow, The ground water had been contami-
nated from mining activities in the past and is now a new
source of contamination to the stream, This non point ground-
water source of contamination will very likely be much more
difficuit to clean up than the point source of contamination
from the mine tunnel.

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