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Assessing the Sources, Quantity, and Transport of Groundwater on Tutuila Island, American Samoa a Disser FROM RECHARGE TO REEF: ASSESSING THE SOURCES, QUANTITY, AND TRANSPORT OF GROUNDWATER ON TUTUILA ISLAND, AMERICAN SAMOA A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCES MAY 2019 By Christopher K. Shuler Dissertation Committee: Aly I. El-Kadi, Chairperson Henrietta Dulai Craig R. Glenn Scot Izuka Celia Smith “Only when the well is dry, will we know the worth of water.” – Benjamin Franklin ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To quote one of my first graduate mentors, Dr. Alex Messina, “The fundamental social unit of the Fa’a Samoa, or the Samoan way of life is the aiga, or extended family. All success and prosperity is shared equally with each member, as it is recognized that no individual succeeds without the full support of the aiga.” Throughout the preparation of this dissertation I have been supported by an incredible network of people across the Samoan and Hawaiian island chains. It is with much alofa and aloha that I extend my deepest gratitude to the many individuals and agencies who were all essential for making this work possible. Firstly, I must thank my committee chair and main adviser, Aly I. El-Kadi as well as my dissertation committee, Henrietta Dulai, Craig R. Glenn, Scot Izuka, and Celia Smith for always supporting me as I explored my ideas, no matter how obscure. I would like to thank the porespace crew, Joe Fackrell, James Bishop, and Christine Waters, for teaching me how to be a real graduate student, and I would also like to thank the GG grad student ohana for plenty of good beach days and Friday evenings at TGs. This work would not have been possible without the collaboration of the American Samoa Power Authority, the American Samoa EPA, the American Samoa Community College and Land Grant, and the Coral Reef Advisory Group. Additionally, I would like to thank all of the individuals who acted as research colleagues, mentors, or arm-chair advisers, including Paul Eyre, Tim Bodell, Katrina Mariner, Will Spitzenberg, Mia Comerios, Ian Gurr, Mark Schmaedic, Hideo Hatori, Kristine Bucchianeri, Mia Comeros, Marike Sudek, Alice Lawrence, Matt Erickson, Taylor Viti, Eric Welch, Olkeba Leta, Brytne Otuhaka, April Kam, Patricia Hirakawa, Rosie Alegado, Dan Amato, Veronica Gibson, Lydia Baker, Nalani Olgun, Alan Mair, Ito, and Alex Messina. I would also like to give my appreciation to Barbara Guieb, Kevin Nishimura, John Matassa, Arlene Sullivan, Susan Van Gorder and Lily Shao for teaching me essential skills in navigating university bureaucracy. I want to dedicate this work to Utu Abe Malae, former ASPA executive director and likely the most effective champion of water resources sustainability in American Samoa. I would also like to acknowledge funding and support provided by NOAA’s Pacific Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments Program (Pacific RISA), the USGS Water Resources Research Institute Program, The US-EPA Region IX Making a Visible Difference Program, The Arcs Foundation, and the UH-Manoa Geology and Geophysics Department. I thank my family, the in-laws, and the outlaws, for their continual encouragement, and especially, I thank my incredible wife who has remained supportive, reassuring, and inspiring throughout these long years of graduate student pay. I would also like to acknowledge my newborn daughter, who through her mere existence has pushed me to pull it all together and finish this work. Finally, I would like to thank the people of American Samoa for their friendliness, welcoming nature, and curiosity that has allowed my research to be enjoyable, successful, and I hope, impactful. iii ABSTRACT On high volcanic islands, groundwater resources are essential for maintaining human habitability and for sustaining coastal and aquatic ecosystems. On the island of Tutuila in American Samoa, groundwater is the only source of drinking water to over 90% of the island’s approximately 60,000 residents. However, the island’s population faces numerous water quality and water quantity challenges including well salinization, aquifer contamination by anthropogenic sources, and environmental water quality degradation. The purpose of this work is to contribute to new understanding of these issues in tropical island environments, and specifically for the island of Tutuila, by exploring a wide range of hydrogeologic phenomena through presentation of six individual chapters; each of which targets a small set of the territory’s most critical water resources management questions. This dissertation commences in its Introduction and concludes in its Appendices with a comprehensive literature review on the topic of American Samoan hydrogeology, which is contextualized as a conceptual hydrogeologic model that supports the other studies presented here as individual chapters. Chapter 2 details the application of geochemical and biological tracers to determine the mechanism of contamination in wells on Tutuila’s Tafuna-Leone Plain that have caused one of the longest standing boil-water-notices in U.S. history. Chapter 3 explores surface water - groundwater interaction in one of the island’s steepest watersheds and uses natural environmental tracers to quantify submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) and associated nutrient loading. This study shows how comprehensive, tracer-based field assessment of SGD can be complimented by watershed modeling to develop a conceptual hydrogeologic model of groundwater-surface water interaction and to quantify coastal nutrient loading by multiple hydrologic pathways. Chapter 4, expands upon the techniques used in Chapter 3 and also examines macroalgal tissue parameters to quantify the impact of land-based, nutrient-pollution sources on four separate watersheds spanning a human-impact gradient. Chapter 5 presents the development and results of a water budget assessment of Tutuila Island, specifically designed to estimate spatially distributed groundwater recharge, and including effects of future climate change. Chapter 6 presents a distinctive approach to groundwater modeling; instead of focusing on model results, this chapter focuses on the vertically-integrated, cloud-based, and process oriented collaborative modeling framework applied jointly between researchers and water utility staff at the American Samoa Power Authority to develop a cooperative groundwater modeling process. As a case study, this chapter shows how the collaborative approach can be applied to develop modeling products that have greater longevity and applicability to the needs of resource managers. Each of the individual chapters in this dissertation is linked through the common goal of seeking to provide researchers, water resource managers, and policy makers with applied science tools that can be used to improve water resources sustainability in American Samoa and throughout the Pacific. iv Table of Contents Chapter 1: ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction and Conceptual Hydrogeologic Model ................................................................... 1 1.1 Background and Motivation .............................................................................................. 1 1.2 Dissertation Significance, Objectives, and Outline ........................................................... 2 1.3 Geographic Setting ............................................................................................................ 4 1.3.1 Regional Setting ...........................................................................................................4 1.3.2 Regional Geologic History ..........................................................................................5 1.4 Geology of Tutuila ............................................................................................................. 6 1.4.1 Pleistocene Volcanic Shields ........................................................................................6 1.4.2 Sedimentary Units and Changes in Sea Level .............................................................8 1.4.3 Holocene Leone Volcanics ...........................................................................................9 1.5 Updated Conceptual Hydrogeologic Model of Tutuila, American Samoa ........................ 9 1.5.1 General Conceptual Hydrogeologic Model of Basalt Islands ...................................10 1.5.2 Hydrogeologic Units on Tutuila ................................................................................12 1.5.3 Groundwater Occurrence in Tutuila’s Hydrogeologic Units .....................................13 1.5.4 Conceptual Model Summary .....................................................................................20 Chapter 2: ................................................................................................................................... 21 Isotopes, Microbes, and Turbidity: A Multi‐Tracer Approach to Understanding Recharge Dynamics and Groundwater Contamination in a Basaltic Island Aquifer ... 21 Abstract .................................................................................................................................. 21 2.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 22 2.1.1 Study Location ...........................................................................................................25
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