93-482:

Hydrogeological Engineering
Summer 2012

Hydrogeology
Hydrogeology
study of the laws of occurrence and
movement of subterranean water

Geohydrogeology
Contaminant Hydrogeology

Groundwater Contamination Cases

Walkerton May 2000
Woburn Case Civil Action
Contamination of TCE near W.R. Grace's Cryogenic plant and
J.J. Riley's (Beatrice Foods) tannery, MA.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company, California

contamination of drinking water with hexavalent chromium, also
known as chromium (VI), in the southern Calif. Town of Hinkley

Amherstburg Arsenic Contamination

Ville Mercier in Quebec;
Highway de-icing salt problem in Nova Scotia;
industrial effluents in Elmira, Ontario;
various pesticides in the Prairie provinces;
industrial contamination in Vancouver, British Columbia
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Questions to be Addressed?

What is groundwater?
Why is it important?
Where does it come from?
How does it move?
How much can we take for water supplies?
What is its role in transporting contaminants?

Objectives
To impart knowledge on fundamentals of
groundwater hydrology, contaminant transport
and remediation
To train students on applying the fundamentals
to real world problems
To equip the students with some of the
techniques and tools required for practicing
profession in hydrogeology

Hydrological Cycle

Todd and Mays (2005)

What is Groundwater?
Subsurface water that occurs beneath the water table in
soils and geologic formations that are fully saturated
found underground in the spaces between particles of
rock and soil, or in crevices and cracks in rock.

flows slowly through water bearing formations (aquifers)

at different rates.
In places where groundwater has dissolved limestone to
form caverns and large openings, its rate of flow can be
relatively fast but this is exceptional
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Groundwater

Todd and Mays (2005)

Why is it important?
Groundwater is a major link in the hydrologic cycle
Areas of interest
1. Fluid Motion
Flow rates, direction and amounts
Important for transport of chemical substances/
contamination studies

2. Storage
Amount of fluid available in pore/fractures to exploit.
Involves porosity and compressibility
Important for water resources evaluation, land subsidence
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Groundwater Use in Canada

Almost nine
million (30.3%)
Canadians
depend on
groundwater

http://www.ec.gc.ca/wate
r/en/nature/grdwtr/e_
sixmil.htm

http://www.ec.gc.ca/WATER/images/nature/grdwtr/a5f6e.htm

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Groundwater Use in Canada

Alfonso Rivera, Chief

Hydrogeologist, 2006

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World Water Supply - Groundwater

http://www.ec.gc.ca/water/images/nature/grdwtr/a5f7e.htm
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How Old is Groundwater?

Residence time varies from as little as days or weeks to

as much as 10,000 or more years
By comparison, average turnover time of river water is
about two weeks
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Hydrologic Cycle

Todd and Mays (2005)

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Hydrologic Cycle

Reference???

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Hydrological Cycle - Water Fluxes

W. M. Alley et al., Science 296, 1985 -1990 (2002)

Published by AAAS

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Hydrological Cycle

Todd and Mays (2005)

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Groundwater Hydrology
Its Connection to Mass Transport
Groundwater flow transports the solutes
and/or contaminants along with it.
Mechanisms
Advection
Dispersion

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Local vs Regional Groundwater flow

Todd and Mays (2005)

19

Local vs Regional Groundwater flow

Todd and Mays (2005)

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Definitions
Aquifer
Saturated permeable geologic unit that can
transmit significant quantities of water under
ordinary hydraulic gradients
Confined Aquifer
Unconfined Aquifer
Semi-Confined Aquifer

Aquitard
Aquiclude
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Definitions
Aquifer
Aquitard
Beds of lower permeability in the stratigraphic
sequence that contain water but do not yield
water to pumping wells
Generally referred to as low permeability
formations overlie major aquifers
Aquifer and aquitard separation is ambiguous

Aquiclude
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Definitions
Aquifer
Aquitard
Aquiclude
Saturated geologic unit that is incapable of
transmitting significant quantities of water
under ordinary hydraulic gradients
e.g., Clays

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Confined-Unconfined Aquifers

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Confined-Unconfined Aquifers

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Confined-Unconfined Aquifers
Unconfined Aquifers Also water table aquifer
an aquifer in which water table forms the upper
boundary
Water level water table

Confined aquifers confined between two

aquitards
Potentiometric surface
Concept of potentiometric surface is valid in
horizontal flow in horizontal aquifers

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Aquifers

Todd and Mays, 2005

27

Recharge-Discharge Areas

Process by which some of the water from rainfall and

melting snow seeps into the soil and percolates into the
saturated zone
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Gaining and Losing Streams

Losing

Gaining

Streams

Todd and Mays (2005)

Todd and Mays (2005)

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Basic Material Properties of

Media and Fluid
Media Porosity (n), permeability (k) and
compressibility ()

Fluid Density (), dynamic viscosity () and

Compressibility (w)
Others are derived.
Hydraulic Conductivity (K), Specific Storage (Ss);
Transmissivity (T) and Storativity (S) in confined
aquifers; Transmissivity (T) and specific yield (Sy) in
unconfined aquifers etc.
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Physical Properties and Principles

Porosity void volume/total volume
Effective porosity amount of
interconnected pore space available for
fluid flow
Permeability Ease with which fluid can
move through a porous rock

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Types of Pore Spaces

Todd and Mays (2005)

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Porosities of Different Porous Media

Todd and Mays, 2005

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Particle Sizes of Different Soils

Todd and Mays, 2005

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Capillary Rise

Todd and Mays, 2005

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Specific Yields

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Summary

Introduction to Hydrogeology
Aquifer, Aquitard, Aquiclude
Confined and Unconfined aquifers
Recharge and discharge areas
Gaining and Losing streams
Properties Porosity, Effective porosity, Permeability
Specific Yield

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