Water Supply and Groundwater Modeling

John J. Ward, RG, Groundwater Consultant

Water supply development requires a multi-disciplinary effort, using the skills of civil engineers, geologists and geophysicists, as well as drilling, pump, and electrical contractors.    In addition to the larger-scale projects listed below, I have worked with individual property owners on developing groundwater supplies for residential and agricultural needs.  I have also worked with industrial clients on development of power plant cooling water supplies, groundwater pumping for contaminant control, and on design and installation of disposal and deep injection wells.

I am versed and regularly utilize simulation software, such as the latest versions of MODFLOW, Goldsim, VS2D, watershed modeling (PRMS and SWAT), and geochemistry (Phreeqc, Netpath).

SELECTED WATER SUPPLY PROJECTS

  • Power Plant Supply, Arizona:  Designed and costed wellfield, and  performance simulations for a 5.8 mgd power plant water supply
  • Municipal Water Supply, New Mexico.  Designed two conceptual wellfields, simulated performance of 9.7 mgd municipal water supply wells.  Developed wellfield costs.
  • Municipal Well Water Supply, Arizona:  Lead hydrogeologist on 2.3 mgd municipal groundwater supply expansion.
  • Replacement Wellfield, Northern Arizona:  Consultant on development of multiple high-capacity deep wells to supply coal mine slurry water. Analyzed long term aquifer tests from 3 alternative well sites.
  • Groundwater Control, California:  Designed, optimized locations and pumping rates, constructed, and operated remedial wellfield for groundwater cleanup, Los Angeles.
  • Power Plant Supply, Hawaii:  Developed groundwater supplies for two power plants on Oahu.  Designed and installed deep injection wells for cooling water disposal.
  • Mine Supply, Florida:  Developed 5 mgd water supply for phosphate mine development.  Installed and tested deep supply wells into the Floridan Aquifer with 4,000 gpm capability.

GROUNDWATER MODELING EXPERIENCE   

Large-Scale Groundwater Flow Models:

  • Mexico: Regional and Mine Site Groundwater Modeling, Developed 3,600 mi2  regional groundwater model with embedded multi-level nested minesite model to simulate pit shell and progressive mine dewatering and pit lake recovery.
  • Arizona: N-Multiple-Aquifer-System, 6,000 mi2, wellfield design and prediction of impacts, in support of Federal reserved water rights adjudication.
  • Arizona/New Mexico: C-Multiple-Aquifer-System, 27,000 mi2, impacts of projected growth in groundwater use, in support of Federal reserved water rights adjudication.
  • Los Angeles: Central Basin and Coastal Plain Aquifer System, 600 mi2 regional model, to develop effective dewatering designs and predict dewatering rates and contaminant transport into depressed section of I-105.
  • New Mexico: Roswell Artesian Basin, 4,500 mi2 regional model, including wellfield design and prediction of impacts from tribal water development.
  • New Mexico: San Juan Basin, 21,000 mi2 model to predict impacts from mine dewatering on water levels and stream flow.

Subregional and Site Flow Models:

  • Los Angeles: Remedial Wellfield, numerical groundwater model to optimize well locations and pumping rates under multi-objective remedial operation (mass removal, capture).
  • Arizona: Class I Hazardous Waste Site,  saturated/unsaturated numerical flow model for siting of facility, development of impact predictions from various release scenarios.
  • California: Dewatering Landfill Addition, Yolo County. Predicted effects of landfill depth configurations and flooding in adjacent waterways based on seasonal water tables.
  • Arizona: variably saturated flow model of vertical moisture migration through adobe and clayey soils into adobe walls.
  • Arizona: Power plant wellfield design and optimization, developed numerical model and wellfield costing model to optimize wellfield configuration.

Contaminant and Vapor Flow Models:

  • Model Brine discharge into New Mexico River, transport model of remediation scenarios from brine discharge from Permian Basin into river and downstream reservoirs.
  • New Mexico, transport model of tailings leakage into groundwater and streams, predicted natural attenuation times from various leakage interception strategies.
  • Arizona, contaminant migration from septic systems into potable groundwater using analytical and numerical transport models.
  • California, numerical soil gas model to predict sweeping efficiency of soil vapor extraction on deep vadose zone contamination