Estimating Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) Regional and Local Suitability: A Case Study in Washington State, USA

Abstract

Developing aquifers as underground water supply reservoirs is an advantageous approach applicable to meeting water management objectives. Aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) is a direct injection and subsequent withdrawal technology that is used to increase water supply storage through injection wells. Due to site-specific hydrogeological quantification and evaluation to assess ASR suitability, limited methods have been developed to identify suitability on regional scales that are also applicable at local scales. This paper presents an ASR site scoring system developed to qualitatively assess regional and local suitability of ASR using 9 scored metrics to determine total percent of ASR suitability, partitioned into hydrogeologic properties, operational considerations, and regulatory influences. The development and application of a qualitative water well suitability method was used to assess the potential groundwater response to injection, estimate suitability based on predesignated injection rates, and provide cumulative approximation of statewide and local storage prospects. The two methods allowed for rapid assessment of ASR suitability and its applicability to regional and local water management objectives at over 280 locations within 62 watersheds in Washington, USA. It was determined that over 50% of locations evaluated are suitable for ASR and statewide injection potential equaled 6400 million liters per day. The results also indicate current limitations and/or potential benefits of developing ASR systems at the local level with the intent of assisting local water managers in strategic water supply planning.

Assessment of Aquifer Storage and Recovery Feasibility Using Numerical Modeling and Geospatial Analysis: Application in Louisiana

“…For the ZT criterion, thicker storage zones are preferred so that higher injection and extraction volume can be utilized. Local HG estimates from the groundwater model, when averaged over each watershed, should not be higher than 0.01 to prevent the stored water from not being recoverable within a reasonable radius of the injection site (Gibson et al 2018). Although near‐well HG is likely to be immediately affected by the degree of mounding occurring during injection, this change in local HG has not been considered in similar previous studies.…”

“…A site suitability analysis is typically needed to determine the most feasible locations for ASR. Previous studies in areas such as the Gulf Coastal Plains aquifer systems in Texas, Washington State, and the Everglades in South Florida have developed a site suitability index (SI) (Brown et al 2005; Smith et al 2017; Gibson et al 2018). Several site criteria are typically selected based on how they would affect potential ASR operations.…”

Application of social identity models of collective action to facilitate participation in groundwater aquifer storage and recovery management

“…ASR, as an approach to water storage ( Smith et al, 2017 ), is an inexpensive solution to increase water storage, to remove pollution ( Stuyfzand and Osma, 2019 ), to reduce aquifer salinity ( Ghaffour et al, 2013 ; Gibson et al, 2018 ; Sathish and Mohamed, 2018 ), and to improve aquifer quality ( Smith et al, 2017 ; Ghose et al, 2018 ). This method has advantages such as evaporation decrease, no need for large land areas for implementation, low cost of implementation ( Bouwer, 2002 ; Khan et al, 2008 ; National Research Council, 2008 ; Maliva and Missimer, 2010 ; Forghani and Peralta, 2018 ; Wasif and Hasan, 2020 ), potentiality for being used in different aquifers and climates ( Maliva et al, 2011 ; Jeong et al, 2018 ), and prevention of the progression of the salinity ( Pyne, 2005 ; Zuurbier and Stuyfzand, 2017 ).…”

Climate Uncertainty and Optimal Groundwater Augmentation

“…Availability of high‐magnitude flows (>90th percentile) in the study area comes from historic daily flow data for 51 years for White River at the De Valls Bluff gage, Arkansas (USGS, 2020a). The 90th percentile of the gage is the threshold for high‐magnitude flows Henriksen et al., 2006; Knaak et al., 2015; Kocis & Dahlke, 2017; USGS, 2020a), (FEMA, 2016; Gibson et al., 2018)), multiplied by the total volume of injected MAR water (Equation ).…”