Groundwater Pumping to Control the Watertable at Dumbleyung
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Government of 7ESTERN !USTRALIA Department of 7ATER Groundwater pumping to control the watertable at Dumbleyung Salinity and land use impacts series Report No. SLUI 51 Looking after all our water needs May 2009 Salinity and land use impacts series Pumping to control the watertable at Dumbleyung SLUI 51 Groundwater pumping to control the watertable at Dumbleyung by T Brooks Department of Water Salinity and land use impacts series Report no. SLUI 51 May 2009 Department of Water i umping to control the watertable at Dumbleyung SLUI 51 Salinity and land use impacts series Department of Water 168 St Georges Terrace Perth Western Australia 6000 Telephone +61 8 6364 7600 Facsimile +61 8 6364 7601 www.water.wa.gov.au © Government of Western Australia 2009 May 2009 This work is copyright. You may download, display, print and reproduce this material in unaltered form only (retaining this notice) for your personal, non-commercial use or use within your organisation. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, all other rights are reserved. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the Department of Water. ISSN 1447-7394 (print) and 1449-5252 (online) ISBN 978-1-921637-24-7 (print) and 978-1-921637-25-4 (online) Recommended reference Brooks, T 2009, Groundwater pumping to control the watertable at Dumbleyung, Department of Water, Salinity and land use impacts series, report no. SLUI 51. Acknowledgements The Department of Water would like to thank the following for their contribution to this publication. Richard George, Department of Agriculture and Food, described long-term experiences with Western Australia hydrogeology and groundwater salinity to the author. Nick Cox and Ken McIntosh, Salinity and Water Resource Recovery branch of the Department of Water, contributed essential information on field data and general Wheatbelt salinity hydrogeology in the greater context of the Engineering Evaluation Initiative. Much of this report is based on data and information collected by Shawan Dogramaci, formerly Salinity and Water Resource Recovery branch, Department of Water. Phil Commander and Ryan Vogwill reviewed report drafts. For more information about this report, contact Nick Cox Cover photo: Production bore for pumping groundwater from a Dumbleyung palaeochannel Photographer : Rachel McDougall ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ii Department of Water Salinity and land use impacts series Pumping to control the watertable at Dumbleyung SLUI 51 Contents Summary .....................................................................................................................v 1 Introduction..............................................................................................................1 1.1 Project objectives.............................................................................................................1 1.2 Palaeochannel pumping concept .....................................................................................2 1.3 Dumbleyung drilling program ...........................................................................................3 1.4 Previous investigations ....................................................................................................4 2 Study area description.............................................................................................6 3 Palaeochannel location and dimensions .................................................................8 3.1 Palaeochannels within current stream channels ..............................................................8 3.2 Palaeochannels defined using surface geophysics..........................................................8 3.3 Geological cross sections ..............................................................................................10 4 Palaeochannel hydrogeologic characteristics .......................................................14 4.1 General Wheatbelt palaeochannel hydrogeology ..........................................................14 4.2 Dumbleyung palaeochannel hydrogeology ....................................................................15 5 Watertable management .......................................................................................19 5.1 Aquifer test description...................................................................................................19 5.2 Aquifer test results .........................................................................................................19 5.3 Long-term pumping results ............................................................................................22 6 Costs and benefits.................................................................................................26 7 Conclusions...........................................................................................................27 Glossary ....................................................................................................................29 References ................................................................................................................31 Appendices A — Bore screen and gravel-filled annulus ...............................................................33 B — Bore lithology logs .............................................................................................34 C — Hantush semi-confined assumptions.................................................................45 D — Aquifer test data for bore 60914945 ..................................................................46 Department of Water iii Pumping to control the watertable at Dumbleyung SLUI 51 Salinity and land use impacts series Figures 1 Conceptual palaeochannel pumping proposal.............................................................................. 2 2 Dumbleyung site in south-west Western Australia ....................................................................... 6 3 Dumbleyung area ......................................................................................................................... 7 4 Dumbleyung rainfall (Post Office)................................................................................................. 7 5 Dumbleyung alluvial channel........................................................................................................ 9 6 Geophysics-based palaeochannels............................................................................................ 10 7 Geologic cross section lines ....................................................................................................... 11 8 Geologic cross section A–B........................................................................................................ 12 9 Geologic cross section C–D ....................................................................................................... 13 10 Wheatbelt block diagram ............................................................................................................ 14 11 Dumbleyung bore logs................................................................................................................ 17 12 Aquifer test interpretation using bore 60914945’s early data ..................................................... 20 13 Aquifer test interpretation using bore 60914945’s late data ....................................................... 21 14 Pumping discharge (July 2006 – May 2007) .............................................................................. 22 15 Dumbleyung rainfall 2006–07.....................................................................................................23 16 Bore hydrographs 50 m from the pumping bore......................................................................... 23 17 Bore hydrographs 100 m from pumping bore............................................................................. 24 18 Bore hydrographs 200m from pumping bore.............................................................................. 24 19 Generalised long-term pumping effects...................................................................................... 25 Tables 1 Bore definitions used in this report ............................................................................................... 3 2 Bore information summary ........................................................................................................... 4 3 Palaeochannel dimensions indicated by geophysical survey ....................................................... 9 4 Wheatbelt permeabilities ............................................................................................................ 15 5 Typical Dumbleyung palaeochannel bore log............................................................................. 15 6 Dumbleyung project costs .......................................................................................................... 26 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ iv Department of Water Salinity and land use impacts series Pumping to control the watertable at Dumbleyung SLUI 51 Summary The Engineering Evaluation Initiative (EEI) was established in 2002 to evaluate various engineering solutions to Wheatbelt salinity. This report describes the effectiveness of groundwater pumping to manage the watertable at a site