Water Resources of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Prepared in cooperation with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development Water Resources of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana Introduction including 19.90 Mgal/d from groundwater sources and Information concerning the availability, use, and quality 0.18 Mgal/d from surface-water sources1 (table 1). Withdrawals of water in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana (fig. 1), is critical for public supply accounted for nearly 73 percent of the total for proper water-resource management. The purpose of this water withdrawn in 2010 (table 2). Water withdrawals for other fact sheet is to present information that can be used by water categories of use included industrial, rural domestic, livestock, managers, parish residents, and others for stewardship of this general irrigation, and aquaculture. Water-use data collected at vital resource. Information on the availability, past and current 5-year intervals from 1960 to 2010 indicated that total water use, use trends, and water quality from groundwater and withdrawals during the years 1960 and 2010 were similar at surface-water sources in the parish is presented. Previously about 20 Mgal/d (fig. 2). published reports (see References Cited section) and data stored in the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water Information 1 System (http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis) are the primary sources Water-withdrawal data are based on estimated or reported site-specific data and aggregated data, which are distributed to sources. For a full description of the information presented here. of water-use estimate methodology, see “Data Collection” in Sargent (2011). In 2010, about 20.1 million gallons per day (Mgal/d) Tabulation of numbers across text and tables may result in different totals of water were withdrawn in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, because of rounding; nonrounded numbers are used for calculation of totals. 90°30' 90°20' 90°10' ARKANSAS Tangipahoa 90°40' subbasin MISSISSIPPI 31°00' L LOUISIANA MISSISSIPPI Ta-362 it TEXAS tl Bogue Chitto subbasin A e S B il og ver Creek u LOUISIANA Kentwood e C TANGIPAHOA T h c i h tt PARISH e o f u GULF OF MEXICO TANGIPAHOA n c PARISH te 30°50' 10 Ri Tickfaw v 51 e subbasin r Roseland Ta-260 WASHINGTON EXPLANATION N AmiteT PARISH Approximate altitude of base of fresh a a ta n g groundwater, in feet below National lb ST TAMMANY a i p Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 n a PARISH y h ST HELENA R o Folsom (modified from Smoot, 1988)—Deepest PARISH i a 30°40' v e R freshwater contained within the Jasper r iv LIVINGSTON er C aquifer PARISH 07375000 Ta-278 Above 2,000 Liberty Bayou-Tchefuncta subbasin 2,000 to 2,499 07376500 07375500 2,500 to 2,999 Hammond O 3,000 to 3,499 Baptist O Robert C C 12 3,500 and deeper 30°30' T Ta-268 i c k Approximate area where intermediate sands fa w Ponchatoula contain saltwater R iv A'A Line of section (see fig. 3) er 55 Lake River subbasin boundary Pass Pontchartrain Manchac Well for which hydrograph is shown 30°20' Lake Pontchartrain Lake Maurepas subbasin Ta-278 (see fig. 4) Lake subbasin ST JOHN Maurepas A' THE BAPTIST C U.S. Geological Survey surface-water PARISH 07375500 discharge site and number Base modified from U.S. Geological Survey digital data Albers Equal-Area Conic projection U.S. Geological Survey surface-water 0 10 20 MILES O North American Datum of 1983 07376500 quality site and number (see table 4) 0 10 20 KILOMETERS Figure 1. Location of study area, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana. U.S. Department of the Interior Fact Sheet 2016–3049 U.S. Geological Survey July 2016 Groundwater Resources Table 1. Water withdrawals, in million gallons per day, by source in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, 2010 (Sargent, 2011; B.P. Sargent, The primary freshwater-bearing aquifer systems in U.S. Geological Survey, written commun., 2015). Tangipahoa Parish, from near surface to deepest, include the Chicot equivalent, Evangeline equivalent, and Jasper equivalent Aquifer system or Groundwater Surface water surface-water body aquifer systems (fig. 3). The base of fresh groundwater (water with a chloride concentration of 250 milligrams per liter Chicot equivalent 4.85 [mg/L] or less) generally ranges from greater than 2,000 to aquifer system 3,500 feet (ft) below the National Geodetic Vertical Datum Evangeline equivalent 2.46 of 1929 (NGVD 29) in Tangipahoa Parish (fig. 1) (Smoot, aquifer system 1988). Aquifers in the parish generally dip and thicken to the Jasper equivalent 12.59 south. Recharge to the aquifers is primarily from infiltration aquifer system of precipitation in the area extending from central Tangipahoa Miscellaneous streams 0.18 Parish northward to about 100 miles (mi) into Mississippi. Total 19.90 0.18 Leakage from adjacent aquifers and seasonal input from rivers also provide for some recharge (Griffith, 2003). Discharge from the aquifers is by natural flow into rivers, leakage into underlying aquifers, and withdrawal from wells. The Chicot Equivalent Aquifer System Table 2. Water withdrawals, in million gallons per day, by use category in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, 2010 (Sargent, 2011). The primary aquifers composing the Chicot equivalent Use category Groundwater Surface water Total aquifer system in Tangipahoa Parish are the Gonzales- Public supply 14.59 0.00 14.59 New Orleans aquifer, Upland terrace aquifer, and the upper Industrial 1.14 0.00 1.14 Ponchatoula aquifer. The Upland terrace aquifer is present at or Rural domestic 3.66 0.00 3.66 near land surface in the northern half of the parish. The upper Ponchatoula aquifer is present in the southern half of the parish Livestock 0.18 0.18 0.36 and may be considered a subsurface extension of the Upland General irrigation 0.27 0.00 0.27 terrace aquifer (fig. 3) (Nyman and Fayard, 1978). The altitude Aquaculture 0.08 0.00 0.08 of the base of the Chicot equivalent aquifer system ranges Total 19.90 0.18 20.08 from about 125 ft above NGVD 29 near the northern parish line to about 900 ft below NGVD 29 near the southern parish line (Griffith, 2003). Aquifers in the Chicot equivalent aquifer system typically range in thickness from 100 to 400 ft (Nyman and Fayard, 1978). In 2009, water levels in the aquifer system ranged from 22 about 250 ft above NGVD 29 near the northern parish line to EXPLANATION about the NGVD 29 in the lowlands near the southern parish 20 Groundwater line. In the hilly northern part of the parish, the direction of Surface water groundwater flow in the Upland terrace aquifer is generally 18 from hilltops towards major stream valleys. Regionally, the overall direction of flow in the Chicot equivalent aquifer system 16 is to the south along the dip of the sediments (Tomaszewski, 14 2011). In Tangipahoa Parish, water-level changes within the Chicot equivalent aquifer system are primarily related to long- 12 and short-term changes in precipitation. Water levels generally fluctuate during the year and declined about 5 ft between 1998 10 and 2012 at well Ta-362 (fig. 4). State well-registration records indicated 7,877 active wells 8 screened in the Chicot equivalent aquifer system in Tangipahoa Parish in 2015, including 7,042 domestic, 587 irrigation, 6 221 public supply, and 27 industrial. Depths of these wells Annual withdrawal, in million gallons per day 4 ranged from 16 to 800 ft below land surface. Reported well yields ranged from 1 to 1,000 gallons per minute (gal/min) 2 (Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, 2015). In 2010, groundwater withdrawals from the Chicot equivalent aquifer 0 system in Tangipahoa Parish totaled about 4.85 Mgal/d, 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 Year including 1.19 Mgal/d for public supply, 3.29 Mgal/d for rural-domestic use, 0.10 Mgal/d for livestock, 0.26 Mgal/d Figure 2. Water withdrawals in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, for general irrigation, and 0.02 Mgal/d for aquaculture (B.P. 1960–2010 (Sargent, 2011). Sargent, U.S. Geological Survey, written commun., 2012). NORTH SOUTH A A’ EXPLANATION FEET FEET ST. JOHN THE ST. PARISH BAPTIST TANGIPAHOA PARISH Freshwater in sand 400 Kentwood Amite Hammond 400 Saltwater in sand—Saltwater Chicot equivalent I-55 I-12 I-55 200 aquifer system Generalized 200 contains greater than 250 milligrams per liter chloride Upland terrace surface profile Pass Manchac NGVD 29 aquifer Gonzales-New Orleans aquifer NGVD 29 Clay -200 Upper Ponchatoula -200 ? aquifer Lithologic contact—Separates clay and sand layers. Dashed where ? -400 Kentwood Big Branch Lower Ponchatoula Upper -400 approximate. Queried where uncertain Evangelineaquifer equivalent aquifer aquifer Ponchatoula -600 aquifer system ? aquifer -600 Hydrogeologic contact—Defines Lower Ponchatoula aquifer boundary between conjoined or -800 -800 merged aquifers CovingtonAbita aquifer aquifer Big Branch aquifer Lower Ponchatoula aquifer -1,000 ? -1,000 Hydrogeologic contact—Defines the ? approximate boundary between -1,200 Abita aquifer -1,200 aquifers or aquifer systems ? -1,400 Hammond -1,400 Fault ? aquifer Jasper equivalent aquifer system Lower Ponchatoula Bend in section -1,600 ? aquifer -1,600 ? Big Branch aquifer ? -1,800 Covington -1,800 ? Amite aquifer aquifer Abita aquifer -2,000 Amite Tchefuncte -2,000 aquifer aquifer Covington -2,200 (Source well-log data limited to approximately this depth) aquifer -2,200 ? Hammond aquifer -2,400 ? -2,400 Tchefuncte -2,600 aquifer ? -2,600 -2,800 Tchefuncte -2,800 aquifer -3,000 -3,000 Figure 3. Generalized north-to- ? -3,200 -3,200 south hydrogeologic section through -3,400 -3,400 Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana (modified VERTICAL SCALE GREATLY EXAGGERATED 0 5 10 MILES from Griffith, 2003). Trace of section 0 5 10 KILOMETERS shown on figure 1.