Executive Summary
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OF WYOM TE IN TA G Wyoming State Geological Survey S G E Y Ronald C. Surdam, State Geologist O 1933 E L RV OGICAL SU Green River Basin Water Plan II Groundwater Study Level I (2007-2009) Available Groundwater Determination Technical Memorandum Executive Summary Prepared for the Wyoming Water Development Commission Laramie, Wyoming 2010 Wyoming State Geological Survey Ronald C. Surdam, State Geologist © 2010 by the Wyoming State Geological Survey, Laramie, Wyoming This publication is available online at: http://waterplan.state.wy.us/plan/green/green-plan.html Individuals with disabilities who require an alternative form of this publication may contact the WSGS TTY relay operator: 800-877-9975. The WSGS encourages fair use of its publications. 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Cover: Boar’s Tusk, Quaternary volcanic neck, east of Eden, Wyoming, Photo by Meg Ewald, 2009 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY GREATER GREEN RIVER BASIN – GROUNDWATER STUDY, LEVEL I Available Groundwater Determination Technical Memorandum This memorandum represents our current assessment of available groundwater resources in the Greater Green River Basin (GGRB) of southwestern Wyoming and small adjacent areas of Colorado and Utah. The GGRB encompasses the Green River, Washakie, and Sand Wash Basins – the drainage basins of the Green River and Little Snake River – and the Great Divide Basin, an internal drainage basin, which straddles the Continental Divide (Figure 1). This memorandum informs the 2008 Green River Basin Water Plan II – Groundwater Study (Level I), part of a larger surface water and water use plan update by a consulting team under the direction of WWC Engineering, Inc., Laramie, Wyoming (WWC Engineering Inc., forthcoming). The memorandum was prepared by personnel of the Wyoming State Geological Survey (WSGS), Laramie; the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Wyoming Water Science Center, Cheyenne; and the University of Wyoming Water Resources Data System (WRDS), Laramie. Funding to update the 2001 Green River Basin Water Plan was provided by the Wyoming Water Development Commission (WWDC). Databases of digital data and information about groundwater, wells, springs, geology, hydrogeology, precipitation, aquifer sensitivity, aquifer recharge, and groundwater modeling for the GGRB came from the Colorado Geological Survey, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), U.S. Geological Survey, Utah Geological Survey, WRDS, WDEQ, Wyoming Geographical Information Science Center, Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (WOGCC), Wyoming State Engineer’s Office (WSEO), WSGS, WWDC, and The PRISM Climate Group at Oregon State University. The 2001 Green River Basin Water Plan (States West Water Resources Corporation, 2001) is obsolescent in 2008 for some water resource issues because of energy development in the basin and the generation of additional data. The Jonah Field and Pinedale Anticline natural gas developments are ongoing in Sublette and northwestern Sweetwater counties, in an area between Farson and Pinedale. A major coalbed natural gas (CBNG) development is starting north of Baggs in western Carbon County. Other energy developments in the GGRB are continuing or are planned for the near future. Energy development, a growing population, and business development within the basin are causing increasing demand for water. Periodic economic downturns may slow the rate of increase in demand, but the trend is clearly demanding of careful stewardship of the GGRB water resource. Groundwater is stored in most geologic units in the GGRB, but some areas of the basin have little or no useable groundwater available. The availability of groundwater in the 1 GGRB is determined by geologic, hydrogeologic, topographic, and climatic conditions. The quantity and quality of available groundwater are dependent on the type of unconsolidated deposit or bedrock hosting the subsurface water and its depth below the land surface. As part of the hydrologic cycle, the groundwater regime is related to the surface water regime, evapotranspiration, precipitation, and human use. The ultimate source of groundwater recharge is precipitation. Both the surface water and groundwater resources of the GGRB carry reciprocal responsibilities across Wyoming’s borders. Water planners, water regulators, and other interested parties in Wyoming need to be aware of these responsibilities. In particular, the Little Snake River flows back and forth across the Wyoming-Colorado border, and the northern flank of the Uinta Mountains in Utah provides both surface and groundwater flow northward into Wyoming, to the area west of the Green River. Project scope This memorandum updates, revises, and expands some aspects of the groundwater memorandum that informed the 2001 Green River Basin Water Plan as the Available Groundwater Determination Technical Memorandum (Hahn and Jessen, 2001). The GGRB groundwater regime and basin subregimes are complex, and measurements are sparse and uneven in quality and distribution. This memorandum, a compilation of data available in 2008 and based on available methods of data reduction and analysis, is thus a step in the ongoing pursuit of these goals: • Identify the aquifers in the GGRB • Define the three-dimensional extent of these aquifers • Compile water-well and spring locations • Identify the hydrogeologic properties of the aquifers • Compile and interpret water chemistry data for the aquifers • Compare the identified aquifer water chemistries with state and federal groundwater standards • Estimate the quantity of water available in the aquifers for various uses • Identify aquifer recharge areas • Estimate aquifer recharge rates • Identify areas of groundwater and surface-water interaction • Estimate the “safe yield” potential from the aquifers • Identify and evaluate existing groundwater studies and models • Identify future use opportunities to satisfy projected agricultural, municipal, and industrial demands 2 Mapping rock units The computer format for organizing information with a spatial component – such as geologic information – is called a Geographic Information System, or GIS. In a geological GIS, the rock-stratigraphic units familiar to geologists are now represented as, divided into, or combined into geologic units for purposes of digital geologic mapping and color coding. The framework for the hydrologic information in this report is the assemblage of geologic units that forms the basins, generally as defined by the USGS Geologic Map ofWyoming (Love and Christiansen, 1985) and the Stratigraphic Nomenclature Chart of Wyoming (Love, Christiansen, and Ver Ploeg, 1993), and corresponding coverage of Colorado and Utah. Hydrogeologic units – aquifers and confining units – may contain several geologic units or parts of geologic units, and may cross geologic unit boundaries. On the current 1:500,000-scale geologic maps of Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah, there are 170 GIS geologic units in the GGRB: 105 units in Wyoming, 40 units in Colorado, and 25 units in Utah. Each geologic unit occupies a large or small surface and subsurface area or areas in the basin and adjacent uplifts; none are present throughout the GGRB. This memorandum describes the hydrogeologic properties and water chemistry of these geologic units in the Wyoming GGRB. Topography and structure (Figure 1) The area – approximately 21,000 square miles in Wyoming – defined as the Greater Green River Basin was bounded and divided into subbasins during Late Cretaceous to early Tertiary structural deformation that accompanied the Laramide Orogeny. The GGRB is bounded to the north and northeast by the Wind River Range and Granite Mountains, to the east by the Rawlins Uplift, to the southeast by the Sierra Madre, to the southwest by the southern Sand Wash Basin in Colorado, to the south by the Uinta Mountains in Utah, to the west by the Overthrust Belt, and to the northwest by the Hoback Basin. Within the GGRB, the Rock Springs Uplift and Bridger Basin are located in the Green River Basin proper; the Wamsutter Arch separates the Great Divide and Washakie Basins; and Cherokee Ridge separates the Washakie and Sand Wash basins. Figure 2 is a geologic cross section eastward from the Overthrust Belt across the Moxa Arch, Green River Basin, Rock Springs Uplift, and Washakie Basin. The cross section shows the Precambrian basement overlain by various thicknesses of Paleozoic to Cenozoic formations, some large-scale geologic structures, and major faults. Rainfall Average annual precipitation in the GGRB ranges from less than 7 inches in central basin areas to nearly 60 inches in the high mountain areas (Figure 3). Most of the central basin 3 areas receive between 6 and 15 inches; the highland and mountain areas generally receive 21 to 59 inches. Groundwater resources The West’s groundwater is considered renewable, but increasingly limited in supply. Variations in the quantity and distribution of annual precipitation may limit available water supplies and create