WSP06416

• File Number: 8027
• Description: Section D General Correspondence - Federal Agencies - USDA - Agricultural Research-Service
• State: CO
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 8/1/1975
• Author: USDA
• Title: Field Observations of Transient Ground Water Mounds Produced by Artificial Recharge into an Unconfined Aquifer
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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FIELD OBSERVATIONS OF TRANSIENT GROUND WATER MOUNDS PRODUCED BY
ARTIFICIAL RECHARGE INTO AN UNCONFINED AQUIFER

By W. C. Bianchi and E. E. Haskell, JI:.1

INTRODUCTION

The accurate definition of storage changes in basin subunits and in proxi-
mity to individual recharge areas can mean a refined and expensive observation
network of wells, and frequent monitoring. This occurs when a ground water ba-
sin is artificially recharged at isolated points or if the basin is not under
control of a single water service unit or district. Therefol:e, to describe ba-
sin ground water hydrology, the engineer first uses what little dil:ect observa-
tional data are available as a base from which to apply idealized groundwater
flow theol:ies to approximate storage distributions with time. Because of the
great lack of observational ground watel: data in most ground water basins, this
may be the only way engineers have of predicting the effects of ground water
withdrawals and recharge over a long term.
The primary objective of this report is to present data on the three-dimen-
sional shape of ground water mounds produced by artificial recharge through
water spreading. Such data, along with the boundary conditions and aquifer con-
stants, will be used to test advances in theoretical methods of description of
this phenomenon. The use of this data is illustrated by comparisons drawn
between the theoretical del:ivations of G10ver2 and data gathered at two separate
field recharge sites. These sites were selected to give us as close a control
on water table elevation observations, stratigraphic definition, and aquifer
description as was practical. The extensive tabular data are meant to provide
other theorists with a data bank on which to test their theories as they are
developed.
In engineering application, these ground water mound equations are of value

in--

1. Pl:edicting elapsed time before water logging occurs along leaking canal
sections.
2. Predicting amounts of ground water storage associated with natural and
artificial recharge sites.
3. Predicting responses of the watel: table at individual locations for op-
timizing operational recharge.
4. Predicting the time required fOI: a recharge-formed mound to decay to a
given height.

lSoi1 scientist
East Shields Avenue,
2G10ver, R. E.
charge. U.S. Dept.
[Mimeographed. ]

and program analyst.
Fl:esno, Calif. 93726.
Mathematical del:ivations
Agr., Agl:. Res. Serv., 81

Agricultural Research Service, 4816

pertaining to ground water re-
pp. Ft. Collins, Colo. 1961.

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