The role of regional groundwater flow in the hydrogeology of the Culebra member of the Rustler formation at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), southeastern New Mexico

Corbet, Thomas F.; Knupp, Patrick

doi:10.2172/420404

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The regional water table presented in Figs. 3 and 4 is based on a calibrated free-surface groundwater flow model (MWT3D) described by Corbet and Knupp (1996). As part of the model calibration exercise, 3037 water-table elevation measurements from wells drilled across the Crow Wing watershed and reported by the US Geological Survey (http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/ mn/nwis/gwlevels) were used.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Groundwater-supported evapotranspiration within glaciated watersheds under conditions of climate change

Cohen

Person

Daannen

et al. 2006

Journal of Hydrology

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This paper analyzes the effects of geology and geomorphology on surface-water/-groundwater interactions, evapotranspiration, and recharge under conditions of long-term climatic change. Our analysis uses hydrologic data from the glaciated Crow Wing watershed in central Minnesota, USA, combined with a hydrologic model of transient coupled unsaturated/saturated flow (HYDRAT2D). Analysis of historical water-table and lake-level (1924-2002) records indicates that larger amplitude and longer period fluctuations occur within the upland portions of watersheds due to the response of the aquifer system to relatively short-term climatic fluctuations. Under drought conditions, lake and water-table levels fell by as much as 2-4 m in the uplands but by 1 m in the lowlands. The same pattern can be seen on millennial time scales. Analysis of Holocene lake-core records indicates that Moody Lake, located near the outlet of the Crow Wing watershed, fell by as much as 4 m between about 4400 and 7000 yr BP. During the same time, water levels in Lake Mina, located near the upland watershed divide, fell by about 15 m. Reconstructed Holocene climate as represented by HYDRAT2D gives somewhat larger drops (6 and 24 m for Moody Lake and Lake Mina, respectively). The discrepancy is probably due to the effect of three-dimensional flow. A sensitivity analysis was also carried out to study how aquifer hydraulic conductivity and land-surface topography can influence water-table fluctuations, wetlands formation, and evapotranspiration. The models were run by recycling a wet year (1985, 87 cm annual precipitation) over a 10-year period followed by 20 years of drier and warmer climate (1976, 38 cm precipitation). Model results indicated that groundwater-supported evapotranspiration accounted for as much as 12% (10 cm) of evapotranspiration. The aquifers of highest hydraulic conductivity had the least amount of groundwater-supported evapotranspiration owing to a deep water table. Recharge was even more sensitive to aquifer hydraulic conductivity, especially in the lowland regions. These findings have important implications for paleoclimatic studies, because the hydrologic response of a surface-water body will vary across the watershed to a given climate signal. RightsWorks produced by employees of the U.S. Government as part of their official duties are not copyrighted within the U.S. The content of this document is not copyrighted. AbstractThis paper analyzes the effects of geology and geomorphology on surface-water/-groundwater interactions, evapotranspiration, and recharge under conditions of long-term climatic change. Our analysis uses hydrologic data from the glaciated Crow Wing watershed in central Minnesota, USA, combined with a hydrologic model of transient coupled unsaturated/saturated flow (HYDRAT2D). Analysis of historical water-table (1970-1993) and lake-level (1924-2002) records indicates that larger amplitude and longer period fluctuations occur within the upland portions of watersheds due to the response of the aquifer ...

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Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Groundwater-supported evapotranspiration within glaciated watersheds under conditions of climate change

Cohen

Person

Daannen

et al. 2006

Journal of Hydrology

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“…The area is relatively fl at, and depth to the water table is <3 m over Figure 5 is based on a calibrated, steady-state, free-surface groundwater-fl ow model (MWT3D) described by Corbet and Knupp (1996) and Cohen et al (2006). As part of the model calibration exercise, 3037 watertable-elevation measurements reported by the U.S. Geological Survey (http://nwis.waterdata.…”

Section: Hydrologic Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrologic response of the Crow Wing Watershed, Minnesota, to mid-Holocene climate change

Person

Roy

Wright

et al. 2007

Geological Society of America Bulletin

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In this study, we have integrated a suite of Holocene paleoclimatic proxies with mathematical modeling in an attempt to obtain a comprehensive picture of how watersheds respond to past climate change. A threedimensional surface-water-groundwater model was developed to assess the effects of mid-Holocene climate change on water resources within the Crow Wing Watershed, Upper Mississippi Basin in north central Minnesota. The model was first calibrated to a 50 yr historical record of average annual surface-water discharge, monthly ground-water levels, and lake-level fluctuations. The model was able to reproduce reasonably well long-term historical records of water-table and lake-level fluctuations across the watershed as well as stream discharge near the watershed outlet. The calibrated model was then used to reproduce paleo-groundwater and lake levels using climate reconstructions based on pollen-transfer functions from Williams Lake just outside the watershed. Computed declines in mid-Holocene lake levels for two lakes at opposite ends of the watershed were between 6 and 18 m. Simulated streamflow near the outlet of the watershed decreased to 70% of modern average annual discharge after ∼200 yr. The area covered by wetlands for the entire watershed was reduced by ∼16%. The mid-Holocene hydrologic changes indicated by these model results and corroborated by several lake-core records across the Crow Wing Watershed may serve as a useful proxy of the hydrologic response to future warm, dry climatic forecasts (ca. 2050) made by some atmospheric general-circulation models for the glaciated Midwestern United States.

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“…Phillips implied that the impermeability of such a layer has been an erroneous cornerstone of the hydrological modeling at WIPP, although he did not cite the references. In fact, the three-dimensional basin-scale modeling of the WIPP hydrologic system performed by Corbet and Knupp (1996;see also Corbet, 2000), which provides the conceptual underpinning of all recent WIPP hydrologic studies and models, does not include the Mescalero Caliche at all.…”

Section: Topographic Depressions East Of Nash Drawmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This infiltration rate is consistent with four earlier studies cited by Geohydrology Associates, but it is significantly higher than the 0.2-2 mm/yr infiltration rates calculated more recently by Campbell et al (1996) for a much more restricted area on Livingston Ridge. Corbet (1998) and Corbet and Knupp (1996) have suggested that some of the lateral variations in geochemical signatures of the waters in the Culebra can be explained by local, longterm recharge from vertical infiltration. Moreover, their models suggest that most precipitation over the WIPP site enters the higher-permeability sandstones of the Dewey Lake and Santa Rosa Formations, and that only a limited vertical "leakage" of this water filters down into units of the Rustler Formation.…”

Section: Infiltration Of Precipitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Measurements of the potentiometric heads and of the chemistry of the waters found in the Rustler have been significantly improved during recent studies, yet the significance of these data is still under debate. The modeling of Corbet (1998) and Corbet and Knupp (1996) suggests that many of the observed patterns of groundwater geochemistry can most readily be explained by assuming that, over geologic time scales, there is a certain amount of vertical connectivity across formation boundaries as well as the widely accepted and more rapid lateral flow within members of the Rustler Formation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessment of the potential for karst in the Rustler Formation at the WIPP site.

Lorenz¹

2006

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This report is an independent assessment of the potential for karst dissolution in evaporitic strata of the Rustler Formation at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) site. Review of the available data suggests that the Rustler strata thicken and thin across the area in depositional patterns related to lateral variations in sedimentary accommodation space and normal facies changes. Most of the evidence that has been offered for the presence of karst in the subsurface has been used out of context, and the different pieces are not mutually supporting.Outside of Nash Draw, definitive evidence for the development of karst in the Rustler Formation near the WIPP site is limited to the horizon of the Magenta Member in drillhole WIPP-33. Most of the other evidence cited by the proponents of karst is more easily interpreted as primary sedimentary structures and the localized dissolution of evaporitic strata adjacent to the Magenta and Culebra water-bearing units. Some of the cited evidence is invalid, an inherited baggage from studies made prior to the widespread knowledge of modern evaporite depositional environments and prior to the existence of definitive exposures of the Rustler Formation in the WIPP shafts. Some of the evidence is spurious, has been taken out of context, or is misquoted.Lateral lithologic variations from halite to mudstone within the Rustler Formation under the WIPP site have been taken as evidence for the dissolution of halite such as that seen in Nash Draw, but are more rationally explained as sedimentary facies changes. Extrapolation of the known karst features in Nash Draw eastward to the WIPP site, where conditions are and have been significantly different for half a million years, is unwarranted. The volumes of insoluble material that would remain after dissolution of halite would be significantly less than the observed bed thicknesses, thus dissolution is an unlikely explanation for the lateral variations from halite to mudstone and siltstone. 4Several surficial depressions at WIPP, suggested to be sinkholes, do not have enough catchment area to form a sinkhole, and holes drilled to investigate the subsurface strata do not support a sinkhole interpretation. Surface drainage across the WIPP site is poorly developed because it has been disrupted by migrating sand dunes and because precipitation is not focused by defined catchment areas in this region of low precipitation and low-dip bedding, not because it has been captured by sinkholes. There are no known points of discharge from the Rustler Formation at WIPP that would indicate the presence of a subsurface karst drainage system. The existing drillholes across the WIPP site, though small in diameter, are sufficient to assess the probability of karst development along the horizontal fractures that are common in the Rustler Formation, and the area of investigation has been augmented significantly by the mapping of four large-diameter shafts excavated into the WIPP repository. The general absence of dissolution, karsting, and related con...

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The role of regional groundwater flow in the hydrogeology of the Culebra member of the Rustler formation at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), southeastern New Mexico

Cited by 13 publications

References 32 publications

Groundwater-supported evapotranspiration within glaciated watersheds under conditions of climate change

Groundwater-supported evapotranspiration within glaciated watersheds under conditions of climate change

Hydrologic response of the Crow Wing Watershed, Minnesota, to mid-Holocene climate change

Assessment of the potential for karst in the Rustler Formation at the WIPP site.

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