Groundwater monitoring on the Fennessey Ranch, TX

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Groundwater monitoring on the Fennessey Ranch, TX

• Lucia Upchurch
• GIS in Water Resources
• November 28, 2006

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Fennessey Ranch

• Part of the newly designated MANERR
• 3,324 acre Ranch
• 10 artesian wells on property
• 4 TWDB groundwater wells in or nearby

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Goals

• Extract precipitation (in progress)/surface flow
  data
• Examine preliminary data from Fennessey Ranch
• Examine potential recharge and discharge in this
  aquifer
• Correlate surface and groundwater flow (not
  completed)

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Data Sources

• DEM http//seamless.usgs.gov
• NHDplus Rae Mooney, Tyler Jantzen
• MANERR base maps Sally Morehead
• Land Cover National Landcover Dataset 1992
  http//seamless.usgs.gov/website/seamless/viewer.p
  hp
• Texas Water Development Board database
  http//www.twdb.state.tx.us/mapping/gisdata.asp
• Fennessey Ranch shapefile created with help of
  Tyler McEwan
• Texas General Land Office hydrography
  http//www.glo.state.tx.us/gisdata/gisdata.html
• Fennessey Ranch Wells Chip Breier

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Surface Flow Watershed delineation using
Terrain Preprocessing
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• DEM
• Catchment delineation
• Flowline delineation
• Close-up of Fennessey

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Surface and Groundwater resources Hydrologic
data
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Surface Flow USGS stream gage
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Factors affecting surface/groundwater interaction

• Land Cover (primarily pasture, herbaceous
  wetlands, and shrubland)
• Soil moisture capacity (in progress)
• Precipitation/weather downloader (in progress)

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Preliminary Fennessey Ranch data courtesy of Chip
Breier
Well location, as well as nutrients, discharge
rate, salinity, and radium isotopic data
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Radionuclides- useful for Groundwater
flow/Groundwater Discharge/Recharge
Nuclide Half-life
Ra-226 1600 yrs
Ra-228 5.75 yrs
Ra-224 3.64 days
Ra-223 11.7 days
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Radium in Fennessey Wells

• Higher salinity should increase all Ra
• Big bubbles more saline
• Ra-228/Ra-224 should be in equilibrium (11)
• Ra-228/Ra-224 show similar patterns

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Radium, contd

• Showing same trend with salinity
• Not completely linear (removal process at highest
  point?)
• Can be useful in estimating groundwater discharge
  and recharge
• Average recharge rate for this aquifer is
  0.01-3.0 mm/yr (http//www.twdb.state.tx.us/Gam/re
  sources/resources.htm)

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Future Goals

• Short Term
• Precipitation
• Soil cover/moisture capacity
• TWDB

• Long Term
• Monitor salinity, nutrients, radium
• Study discharge/recharge of aquifer
• Look at nutrient levels to establish input to
  Copano Bay

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Questions? Comments?

• Thanks to all who helped me!