U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR PREPARED IN COOPERATION WITH THE WATER-RESOURCES INVESTIGATIONS REPORT 02-4123 U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY, SOUTHERN DIVISION, SHEET 1 of 3 NAVAL FACILITIES ENGINEERING COMMAND Taylor. C.J., and Hostettler, F.D., 2002, Hydrogeologic Framework and Geochemistry of Ground Water and Petroleum in the Silurian-Devonian Carbonate Aquifer, South-Central Louisville, Kentucky science USGSfor a changing world INTRODUCTION (A) (B) (C) (D) Previously published investigations concerning the ground-water resources HOLE DIAMETER, ACOUSTIC HOLE DIAMETER. ACOUSTIC HOLE DIAMETER. ACOUSTIC HOLE DIAMETER, ACOUSTIC of the city of Louisville and Jefferson County, Kentucky, have mostly focused on IN INCHES LITHOLOGY TELEVIEWER IN INCHES LITHOLOGY TELEVIEWER IN INCHES LITHOLOGY TELEVIEWER IN INCHES LITHOLOGY TELEVIEWER the highly productive Ohio River alluvial aquifer (Rorabaugh, 1956; Walker, 1957; Bell. 1966: Unthank and others, 1995). In contrast, relatively little attention has been given to the Ordovician and Silurian-Devonian carbonate aquifers that 10h X 10.4 underlie much of the Louisville and Jefferson County area (fig. I) because of their limited potential for water-supply development (Palmquist and Hall, 1960). LLJ LU O O However, detailed information about the ground-water quality and hydrogeology of £ the carbonate aquifer is needed by State and Federal environmental regulators and o: a: ^ ID private consultants for planning and conducting local environmental t,ite 5% CO C/3 t. * assessments and ground-water remediation. The Silurian-Devonian carbonate Q Q aquifer is of particular interest because it underlies much of the urbanized and 40;: 72%- industrialized areas of the city of Louisville, exhibits moderately well-developed NF karst, and is potentially vulnerable to human-induced contamination. 50 + NF During 1999-2001, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the U.S. Department of the Navy (Navy), conducted a multidihciplinary LJ LU t CO 00 60- investigation of the Silurian-Devonian carbonate aquifer in a 52 mi sludy area I- I- LLJ LU (fig. 2) in south-central Louisville, Kentucky. The purpose of the investigation was LJJ LU t to provide information about the hydrogeologic and geochemical framework of the 70r* NF aquifer, ambient ground-water quality, and the source of petroleum hydrocarbons \-t occurring in bedrock strata in the study area. This information was needed by the 80 h Navy to assist environmental-characterization work being done at the former Naval D_ 0_ LJJ LJJ Ordnance Station Louisville (NOSL) site. The NOSL site was designated for D Q closure under the Base Realignment and Closure Act fBRAO in 1995, and 90 ; NF ownership of the 144-acre property is being transferred to the Louisville/Jefferson r County Redevelopment Authority. Federal and State environmental requirements 106r must be satisfied as part of the transfer process. 456789 -8-6 -4-2 678 91011 -7 -6 -5 -4 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -10-8 -6-4-2 LOGK{H) 3 5 7 9 11 13 LOCK LOGK (H) LOGK (H) FEET PER SECOND FEET PER SECOND FEET PER SECOND FEET PER SECOND (Modified from Kepferle, 1974 a,b) EXPLANATION 1.5 2 MILES Quaternary Sediments Jeffersonville Limestone Borehole-flow Contributing zone 1 1.5 2 KILOMETERS measurement Thieving zone EXPLANATION New Providence Shale Louisville Limestone NF No flow measured Approximate boundary of New Albany Shale Bedrock observation wells Artificial fill Ohio River alluvium Lyndon synclme Turbulent flow X Estimated hydraulic Area covered by Sellersburg and Jeffersonville Rockford Limestone 349/8 Identified fracture zone Structure contours Spring Ohio River alluvium Limestone showing strike and dip conductivity for test interval Louisville Limestone Charge in structural \</ Spningdale anticline in degrees (dashed Kenwood SiltstDne Member datum New Albany Shale where approximate) Test interval for constant injection New Providence Shale Member Sellersburg Limestone ^ Static water level hydraulic tests Figure 2. Bedrock geology and structure and ground-water sampling sites, south-central Louisville. Kentucky. Figure 4. Composite borehole logs for (A) Iroquois, (B) Beechmont, (C) Air Guard, and (D) Petersburg wells. JtTfi Counly The Jeffersonville Limestone is also a coarse-grained limestone, ranging up to 40 ft Hydraulic conductivity and transmissivity estimates were also determined in thickness, having abundant whole and fragmented fossils bound in a sparry Hydraulic Conductivity by pneumatic (air) slug tests conducted on the Air Guard, Beechmont, and calcite or dolomitic mudsione matrix. Vuggy porosity is present in isolated EXPLANATION Petersburg wells, and three additional wells (Auburndale, Bellevue, and Camp stratigraphic intervals and stylnli es (pressure-solution seams) are conspicuous The vertical distribution of permeability was evaluated in selected boreholes Taylor) that were not suitable for testing with packers because of borehole [_ J Ohio River alluvial aquifer throughout much of the unit. The lower part of the Jeffersonville Limestone is by conducting constant-head fluid injection tests to obtain estimates of horizontal \9Qf\ Confined Silurian-Devonian carbonate aquifer roughness. The tests were done in the manner described by Greene (1993) and test notable for abundant whole corals. hydraulic conductivity, f nflatable packer equipment was used to isolate narrow j^B| Unconfined karstic Silurian-Devonian carbonate aquifer data were evaluated using the analytical solutions of Cooper and others (1967) or In contrast to the Sellersburg and Jeffersonville Limestones, the Louisville (7.5-ft long) straligraphic intervals, most containing contributing fractures, for | I Unconfined karstic Ordovician carbonate aquifer Ferris and others (1962). Estimates of the hydraulic conductivity obtained by the Limestone is a fine-grained, thin Ui thickly bedded, dolomitic limestone ranging hydraulic testing. The water-inflow rate and maximum change in pressure Figure 1. Subregional aquifer systems within Jefferson County, slug test method are averaged over the entire open-borehole interval of each well. up to 85 ft in thickness (Kepferle. 1974a and b). The base of the Louisville (hydraulic head) recorded during each test were used to calculate the Kentucky. These data are shown in table 2 for comparison with the estimates obtained by the Limestone is not exposed in the sludy area, and its contact with the overlying transmissivity of the test interval using the Thiem equation (Batu, 1998). The constant-head injection tests. Jeffersonville Limestone is disconformable and rather sharply delineated by an calculated transmissivity was then divided by the length of the test interval to Purpose and Scope abrupt change irom coarse-grained, massively bedded limeslone lo fine-grained, obtain an average horizontal hydraulic conductivity. wavy-bedded dolomitic limestone. The results of the constant-head injection tests are summarized in table 1 Table 2. Summary of hydraulic conductivity data This report presents the results of the multidisciplinary investigation Structurally, the rocks in tte study area are part of an arcuate belt of and illustrated graphically on the acoustic televiewer logs in figure 4. The obtained by use of air slug tests at selected open- conducted b> the USGS during 1999-2001, and describes the hydrogeologic Silurian-Devonian strata that crop out along the western flank of the Cincinnati apparent magnitude of change in hydraulic conductivity in vertical profile is borehole wells in south-central Louisville, Kentucky framework of the Silurian-Devonian carbonate aquifer and geochemistry of ground depicted by the trend line inferred from the logarithmic values of hydraulic [BLS, below land surlace datum; <. les* than indicated value; arch (fig. 3), a major structural upwarp beneath the eastern midcontinental United ND, nol determined] water and petroleum in the aquifer in south-central Louisville, Kentucky. The States (McDowell, 1986). In general, bedrock strata dip west off the arch at 20 to conductivity (log K(H)) measured in each test interval. In general, the lest results approach used in the investigation is similar to the one described by Zanini and 70 ft/mi toward the Illinois Basin, a major structural downwarp located beneath indicate that the overall hydraulic conductivity of the carbonate aquifer is low Average others (2000). Data obtained from water-level measurements, aquifer tests, hydraulic much of west-central Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. Locally superimposed on except where contributing fractures are present. Estimates of hydraulic borehole-geophysical and heat-pulse flnwmeter logs, and petrographic analyses of conductivity ranged from 1U~ to 10"" ft/s but a few fractures had hydraulic Open Transmissivity conductivity the regional dip are two adjacent, northeast-trending, structural features identified Location interval (square feet (feet per rock cores were used to characterize the physical hydrogeologic framework of the by Kepferle (1974a and b) as the Springdale anticline and Lyndon syncline conductivities that exceeded the upper test limits (>10 ft/s). (fig- 2) (feet BLS) per second) second) carbonate aquifer hydrostratigraphic units, porosity and permeability, (fig. 2). Bedrock strata dip to the north and south relative to the axial trends Ail Guard 27-106 7.1 x IO"2 9.0 x IO"4 contributing (water-bearing) fracture zones, hydraulic heads, and aquifer thickness. of these structures. No mapped fruits are present within the study area; however,