SESSION 5A WELL TECHNOLOGY

Transcription

1 SESSION 5A WELL TECHNOLOGY

2 Cave Creek ASR Well #1: Glass Bead vs Natural Silica Sand Filter Pack: An In-Well Comparison Dave Wrzosek, R.G., Clear Creek Associates Gary M. Gin, R.G., City of Phoenix City of Phoenix has successfully installed, developed and pump tested an Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) well with both natural silica sand (mesh 6 x 9) and glass bead filter pack media (Sigmund Lindner, Type S, mm) installed in different intervals of the well. The co-installation of these two filter packs within a single ASR well was conducted to compare short and long term developmental and ope rational differences. In this presentation, we will summarize development, pump testing, and spinner log activities and findings. Ultimately, we will be testing the long-term viable and potential cost savings of utilizing glass beads.

3 Use for cage-mounted transducer(s) for zonal sampling and air-lift development during well installation. Andrew Scott and Dennis G. Hall, Montgomery & Associates For a recent multi-well drilling program, a transducer was installed at the bottom of the tool string for two phases of well installation. A perforated cage was attached to the bottom of the tool string for mounting a 1,000-psi transducer / datalogger unit. The transducer measured fluid pressure inside the perforated pipe during static and dynamic conditions for zonal sampling operations and for air-lift swab development. Multiple uses for the data acquired have become apparent, including: documenting and verifying execution of activities at the well, calculating aquifer / well parameters, and identifying potential seal leaks during zonal sampling. A limitation of the procedure is that the data are not available until after the tool string is removed from the well and the datalogger is accessible. An extension of the procedure could be to install additional transducers that measure fluid pressure above the upper swab and below the lower swab during development operations.

4 City of Phoenix, Aquifer Storage & Recovery Well #299: How Did You Unclog that Well? Nathan E. Nutter, P.E., Carollo Engineers Gary M. Gin, R.G., City of Phoenix Tom Morris, ASR Systems Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) wells naturally clog after each recharge cycle. Conventional methods for unclogging an ASR well are time consuming and costly. Estimates to conduct well redevelopment are between $110,000 to $150,000 per year, and the duration to complete this work is about 30 to 45 days. City of Phoenix s ASR Well #299 was designed using a new well development methodology that is efficient, cost effective, and utilizes the permanent pump and motor system. Due to programming logic controls, Well #299 can easily transition from recharge mode to well development mode (radial injection surge development) to recovery mode. Annual well development (radial injection surge development) between recharge and recovery modes is critical for maintaining optimal operational rates for both recharge and recovery, which ultimately extends the life cycle and reduces long-term operational and maintenance costs. This presentation summarizes how to unclog an ASR well utilizing the radial injection surge development method and achieving maximum recovery of production and injection rates.

5 Latest Research on Bacteria May Benefit Water Well Owners Gary L. Hix, R.G., CWD/PI Bacteria are everywhere, literally. They re on us, and in us, and they completely surround us. We are just now beginning to discover how much they truly dominate the earth, our lives and our water wells. They were here long before us and they will probably be around long after the human race has disappeared. In the meantime we must recognize that living with them can be very difficult at times, as water well owners can attest. Research scientists in many different fields are now studying microorganisms in a broader environmental or community association framework. Many are now studying them as integrated colonies living in symbiotic relationships rather than as independent species. It s this inter-relationship between all forms of microorganisms living in their natural environment that we must better understand in order to resolve the problems we have with our water wells. Bacteria exist naturally in our aquifers in a symbiotic but relatively low energy state, limited in their growth by available food sources, oxygen and competition from other life forms. It s a low energy existence for all microorganisms in this, their natural environment, until we install a pumping water well. A pumping well delivers food and oxygen on a tray to some very hungry naturally occurring residents that then begin to thrive as never before. Plugging and fouling of the aquifer pores and the well casing or screen openings begin to take place and in no time at all, well performance begins to decline. When the biofilm reaches a critical mass the well performance drops off dramatically. Unfortunately for well owners when the biomass reache s this level of establishment, it s very difficult, if not impossible, to remediate the well back to its original performance level. The latest microbiological research into biofilm development and biomass growth may give us the answers we need to prevent this from happening to our wells.

6 SESSION 5B - TRANSBORDER WATER STUDIES: SONORA/ARIZONA

7 Nogales, Sonora Flood Warning and Modeling Network Floyd Gray 1, Brian Iserman 2, and Erin Boyle 3 1 US Geological Survey, 520 Park Ave, Suite 355 Tucson, AZ JE Fuller Hydrology & Geomorphology, Inc., 8400 S. Kyrene, Suite 201, Tempe, AZ Tucson Weather Forecast Office, 520 North Park Ave, Suite 304, Tucson, AZ The Nogales Early Warning Flood Hazard project has the objective of installing a weather monitoring and stream gage network in critical Mexican headwaters upstream from the U.S. border city of Nogales, Arizona, and to establish a cooperative program between borderlands emergency personnel as well as managers in the two sister cities that will enable them to jointly monitor, track, and develop strategies for mitigation of floods and associated damage caused by flooding. The installation of the system was successfully completed in August 2012 during the waning stages of the Monsoon and consists of NOAA-specified weather stations, USGS stream gages, and Contrail Base Station linked with radio and satellite telemetry. An additional secondary independent weather station array using Davis Instruments and Weatherlink software was also initiated. The Nogales, Sonora ALERT (Automated Local Evaluation in Real Time) system is primarily a real-time flood-threat detection system with the secondary utility of collecting data of environmental, meteorological, and hydrologic value. The final phase of the project will be to support various models including KINEROS2, HEC RAS, running in real-time mode at the emergency response facility in Nogales, Sonora.

8 How do gabions influence infiltration in arid lands? A Paired Watershed Experiment in an Arizona Sky Island Laura M. Norman 1, Evan Gwilliam 2, Fletcher Brinkerhoff 3, Jon Pelletier 4, Miguel Villarreal 1, Pamela L. Nagler 5, Leila Gass 1, and D. Phillip Guertin 6 El Coronado Ranch, in southeastern Arizona is approximately 40 mi. north of the US-Mexico border, on land part privately-owned and part leased from the U.S. Forest Service (31.869, ). The ranch is situated about4.8 miles west and downslope from Chiricahua Peak, the highest point in the Chiricahua Mountains (9,759 ft.). The ranch owners have invested significant resources into building rock detention structures for harvesting, storage, and slow release of water to their streams and their tributaries, resulting in what appears to be increases in riparian forest health, canopy cover, and wildlife. This very ancient technique of water harvesting is posited to be a potential solution for dryland ecosystems to make best use of water given shortages induced by both urban growth and climate-driven drought, yet little documentation exists to confirm the efficacy of these methods. In this proposed research experiment, we identified two similar riparian areas in the same mountain range for comparison; one which has been fit with check dams and rock pile restoration infrastructure and one that has not. Our goal is to quantify the amount of water that is infiltrating the system in the treated watershed and compare that with the untreated site using the water budget to account for change in storage for each hydrologic unit. Methodology, including watershed modeling, stream gage data (continuous-slope-area and crest-stage gages), terrestrial-lidar data, and Landsat image interpretation for changes in vegetation and calculation of evapotranspiration will be presented with results. 1 U.S. Geological Survey, Western Geographic Science Center, 520 N. Park Avenue, Tucson, AZ National Park Service, Sonoran Desert Network Inventory & Monitoring, Tucson, AZ U.S. Geological Survey, Arizona Water Science Center, 520 N. Park Avenue, Tucson, AZ University of Arizona, Department of Geosciences, 1040 E. Fourth St. Tucson, AZ U.S. Geological Survey, Sonoran Desert Research Station, 1110 E. South Campus Drive, Rm 123, Tucson, AZ University of Arizona, School of Natural Resources, 325 Biosciences East, Tucson, AZ 85721

9 Transboundary Aquifer Assessment: Developing Datasets and Subsurface Geologic and Hydrodynamic Conceptual Models for the Binational Upper San Pedro and Upper Santa Cruz Aquifers James Callegary, Ismael Minjarez, Placido dos Santos, Rogelio Monreal, Francisco Grijalva, Elia Tapia, Anne Huth, Floyd Gray, Sharon Megdal, Lucas Oroz, John Merino, Antonio Rascón, Gilbert Anaya, Jesús Quintanar, Christopher Scott The U.S.-Mexico Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Program (U.S. Public Law ) was enacted on Dec. 22, 2006 to assess priority transboundary aquifers in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. A joint cooperative process was developed for coordination of aquifer assessment activities among stakeholders, including among others the U.S. Geological Survey, Mexican National Water Commission, the University of Arizona, the University of Sonora, and both U.S. and Mexican sections of the International Boundary and Water Commission. Additionally, technical activities carried out in the San Pedro and Santa Cruz basins to date include surveying and modeling the geophysical Upper Santa Cruz Basin, its water levels and water quality, along with geophysical surveys in the Sonoran portions of each basin. In the fall of 2011, it was jointly decided to compile and develop binational datasets, as well as develop geologic and hydrodynamic conceptual models for both aquifers. Existing binational datasets for climate variables, hydrography, vegetation (for the Santa Cruz) and land use (for the San Pedro) were found at an acceptable scale. It was also found that binational soil maps do not exist and would require extensive field work and data analysis to develop. Binational geologic datasets did not exist either, but were jointly developed by generalizing units from existing maps. Generalization consisted of identifying stratigraphic units, of similar age and lithology, which could be reasonably grouped. Geophysical, structural, hydrologic, and hydraulic data were used to develop updated binational hydrodynamic conceptual models of each aquifer.

10 SESSION 5C CLIMATE CHANGE II

11 Extreme Cool Season Precipitation in the Southwestern United States Associated with Atmospheric Rivers as Simulated by Regional Climate Models Erick R. Rivera 1, Francina Dominguez 1,2 and Christopher L. Castro 1 1 Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Arizona 2 Department of Hydrology and Water Resources, University of Arizona Inland-penetrating atmospheric rivers (ARs) can affect the Southwestern United States (US) and significantly contribute to cool season (November to March) precipitation. In this study, we present a climatological characterization of AR events that have led to extreme cool season precipitation in selected watersheds in Arizona for the period 1979/ /11. For example, we have found that AR events account for about 80% of the total extreme precipitation in the Verde River basin. Additionally, we examine the results from an ensemble of dynamically downscaled simulations driven by NCEP/DOE Reanalysis 2 data for a historical period ( ) to assess the ability of several regional climate models (RCMs) to represent the spatial distribution and intensity of precipitation associated with the impacting ARs in the basins of interest. Finally, in a previous work, Dominguez et al. (2012) analyzed RCM projections driven by IPCC (2007) general circulation models (GCMs) with future greenhouse gas concentration scenarios, and found a consistent and statistically significant increase in the intensity of future extreme winter precipitation events over the Southwestern US. We will determine if the expected intensification of extreme cool season precipitation over the region and, specifically, the selected watersheds can be statistically related to changes in the intensity of the penetrating ARs.

12 Stakeholder Engagement in Model Development Incorporating Climate Change Uncertainty Susanna Eden, PhD, Water Resources Research Center, University of Arizona The University of Arizona Water Resources Research Center and the Hydrologic Research Center, San Diego, are conducting a two-year research project that uses a process of collaborative model development to combine an innovative modeling framework with extensive stakeholder engagement designed to help water managers deal with climate uncertainties. The project has three objectives: (1) Enhance the probabilistic coupled surface-groundwater modeling framework by incorporating projected future climate change patterns; (2) Engage stakeholders to ensure that their questions and considerations are incorporated into the modeling framework and develop a full understanding of the relevance of the modeli ng efforts to legal and practical water management problems when future conditions are highly uncertain; and (3) Establish the transferability of the approach to other areas where aquifers are influenced by climate change. The proposed presentation deals with objective (2) and (3) relating to stakeholder engagement and the interactive approach to model development and the communication of modeling results. Stakeholders are engaged through a series of workshops, direct communications, and a website with discussion forum. The initial focus of the project is the Santa Cruz Active Management Area, where a major goal of water resource management is to avoid the long-term decline of water tables. Interactions with a Project Advisory Committee with a state and region-wide focus guide development of a process and modeling framework that can be applied in other areas.

13 Using isotope data in precipitation for paleoclimate reconstruction: caveats arising from multi-decade records for Tucson, New Delhi and Hong Kong. Chris Eastoe, and David Dettman, Geosciences Department, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ Calcite in speleothems commonly yields a record of varying * 18 O over the past hundreds to thousands of years. Such variation is usually interpreted in terms of the isotope amount effect in precipitation, namely that high values of * 18 O correspond to low intensity of precipitation, and vice versa. Dansgaard (1964) defined the amount effect in terms of monthly * 18 O variations. Isotope signals at monthly time scale are unlikely to be transmitted to growing stalagmites, and sampling techniques would preclude their detection, even if they were to exist. Signals at longer time scales of single or multiple wet seasons are more likely to be preserved and detected. Analysis of long-term isotope records in precipitation from Tucson, New Delhi and Hong Kong reveals no systematic and usable amount effect in the data at annual time scales. The 32-year Tucson record spans the period 1981 to the present, and reveals no relationship between isotopes and the decade-scale climate change that has occurred during that time.

14 Assessment of Climate Change Impact on Groundwater Reservoirs and Water Resources Management in the Upper Santa Cruz River Presenter: Eylon Shamir, Hydrologic Research Center, San Diego Collaborators: Sharon Megdal & Susanna Eden WRRC\UA; Christopher Castro, Carlos Carillo and Hsin-I Chang Atmospheric Science Department, UA. Funded by: NOAA, Sectoral Applications Research Program (SARP) Planning to meet water demands in semi-arid regions is particularly challenging for groundwater dependent communities where aquifers are being replenished by intermittent streamflow events. We employed a novel modeling framework to address climate uncertainties in the Upper Santa Cruz River near the US-Mexico border crossing. At the heart of this modeling framework is a weather generation model that generates likely-to-occur rainfall scenarios. The weather generation model was further modified to reflect future climate projection based on analyses of selected well performing regional dynamically downscaled global climate models. Rainfall realizations from the weather generation model were used as forcing for a series of hydrologic models that simulate likely scenarios of streamflow, recharge to the groundwater reservoirs, and various groundwater states. This modeling framework enables reliability assessment of various preset water resources and aquifer management scenarios. The presentation will cover key results and will demonstrate the application of the modeling framework for water resources management in uncertain climatic conditions.