Hydraulic properties were varied using a zonation

Hydraulic properties were varied using a zonation Selleck Belnacasan approach. The peat (Fig. 1) was assigned a hydraulic conductivity

of 5.8 m/d, which is the average value estimated from slug tests at three monitoring wells that were located near (<20 m) the Crane Flat pumping well and installed within the peat. The modeled specific yield value was 0.35. These values for K and Sy are within ranges reported for sedge root peat ( Boelter, 1965 and Schimelpfenig et al., 2013). To reproduce the observed steep head decline between the springs (h ≈ 1900 m elevation) and the meadow, we used a low-conductivity zone throughout the west arm area. Although no wells have been drilled near the springs, the overall steep hydraulic gradient suggests less weathering of the bedrock in this area. Elsewhere throughout the model, we assumed a constant hydraulic conductivity within each layer. For the initial steady-state

model development and calibration, we utilized hydraulic heads measured in early June 2004 (Fig. 1). Groundwater levels in the meadow tend to be relatively stable in late spring, prior to warm and dry conditions and increased groundwater pumping in the summer. GSK1120212 price The calibration considered point locations where measured hydraulic heads can be clearly attributed to the peat or underlying sand and gravel material, based on stratigraphic logs from well/piezometer installation. In total, there were seven heads within the peat body and 14 from the sand and gravel used in the calibration. During steady-state model calibration, hydraulic conductivity values were adjusted within reasonable ranges

for all zones except the layer 1 peat. A 16-month transient simulation was conducted using data collected between June 2004 and September 2005. This period includes the last four months Baricitinib of the 2004 water year and the entire 2005 water year (October–September). The simulation time was discretized using monthly stress periods with daily time steps. Pumping and recharge rates, as well as the external heads for the head-dependent flux boundaries, were varied on a monthly basis using averages from measured data (gauged pumping at the meadow well, measured precipitation, and measured hydraulic heads near the north and southeast boundaries). Well pumping is simulated in layers 6 and 7. This modeled vertical interval corresponds to the aquifer depth where there is significant water production, as determined from the well completion details and packer testing (Crews and Abbott, 2005). Simulated hydraulic heads from the transient model were compared to observed heads at selected well/piezometer locations where continuously recorded data are available from pressure transducers. During initial transient runs, we further calibrated the model to identify appropriate values of specific yield and groundwater recharge rate.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>