Hydrologic Impact Assessment: Municipal Spring Protection
Garfield County, Colorado
Western Water & Land was retained by a natural gas exploration and production company to conduct a source assessment and baseline characterization of a municipal spring located downgradient of a proposed drilling operation. The study is currently underway and is being conducted to support an application for a watershed permit as required by the town. Western Water & Land is formulating a conceptual model describing groundwater flow within the aquifers associated with the Town’s spring and using the model to evaluate the susceptibility of the spring to potential impacts from the proposed natural gas drilling operations as well as to identify possible measures to mitigate or reduce the potential for such impacts. Existing data is being used in combination with new data to develop the conceptual model. Existing data include geologic and hydrogeologic setting information, groundwater occurrence, private well data, town spring information, local gas exploration completion details, percolation rates for private septic system, and local meteorological data. New data collected to complement the existing data set include geologic and hydrologic surface mapping results, water levels and water chemistry for private wells, discharge and water chemistry for the town spring, and percolation rate data at the proposed drill pad.
Garfield County, Colorado
Western Water & Land was retained by a natural gas exploration and production company to conduct a source assessment and baseline characterization of a municipal spring located downgradient of a proposed drilling operation. The study is currently underway and is being conducted to support an application for a watershed permit as required by the town. Western Water & Land is formulating a conceptual model describing groundwater flow within the aquifers associated with the Town’s spring and using the model to evaluate the susceptibility of the spring to potential impacts from the proposed natural gas drilling operations as well as to identify possible measures to mitigate or reduce the potential for such impacts. Existing data is being used in combination with new data to develop the conceptual model. Existing data include geologic and hydrogeologic setting information, groundwater occurrence, private well data, town spring information, local gas exploration completion details, percolation rates for private septic system, and local meteorological data. New data collected to complement the existing data set include geologic and hydrologic surface mapping results, water levels and water chemistry for private wells, discharge and water chemistry for the town spring, and percolation rate data at the proposed drill pad.