Welcome back my legion of cyberfans!
I apologize for making you wade through my many typographical errors in the preceding posts. I hadn't read them after posting, and didn't realize how many mistakes there were. Anyhow, I know how dedicated my readers are, and I'm sure you're all more than willing to put up with some minor errors. So.....after participating in the adaptive management areas, my next REU project was the NASA solutions network. I know that everyone is waiting to hear more about the NASA project, but first we'll have to take a small detour. The NASA project started slow and, to be honest, has continued slowly. So, we had a peripheral project to work on; the Dungeness Auquifer Recharge Project. I worked under Ann Soule, the Clallam County Hydrogeologist, on this one. As, some of you may know, much of the irrigation ditches in the Dungeness Prairie were converted to piped irrigation for the purposes of water conservation. The irrigation ditches leaked a significant amount of water, which was eliminated by piping. There were a number of created wetland ponds and wells which recieved their water from this leakage. The recharge project was designed to discover what the minimum amount, and optimum location, of intentional release water was required to maintain those wetlands and wells at their previous levels. To discover this, water was released at three different sites in the Carlsborg area from late may to early july. We then monitored select well sites located near these releases by taking weekly hand measurements or by automated transducer. These measurements occured from early April to mid August. The project is still ongoing, and results are inconclusive at this time. The most important part though, is that I was able to practice and improve my skills at taking electric tape well measurements, collect nitrate samples, work with GIS, and make a poster. The GIS portion of the poster, showing the layout of release and well sites, is attached. Be sure to check back in, I've still got the NASA project dangling.
1 comment:
The aquifer recharge project is very interesting. This is a high priority project, as the opportunities to implement it inexpensively are rapidly disappearing as ditches are piped. The potential payoff is large (if it enables us to use aquifer storage rather than building a surface reservoir in coming decades).
The Carlsborg area would appear to be an unfavorable location to do such a study. USGS studies suggest the surficial aquifer is closely tied to the river.
http://wa.water.usgs.gov/projects/dungeness/publications.htm
Shallow wells have been affected by piping or lining irrigation ditches in the Agnew and Sequim Prairie areas, which are much further from the river. Wouldn't these be better areas to attempt recharge?
Post a Comment