Water. Interaction in the Raisin River Watershed, Near Cornwall, Ontario
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
-.. Groundwater Surface-Water. Interaction in the Raisin River Watershed, near Cornwall, Ontario by Sandra Porter Thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies and Research for the Degree of Master's of Science in Earth Sciences Ottawa-Carleton Geoscience Centre and University of Ottawa Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Sandra Porter O (1996) Abstract The interaction of groundwater with surface water is an integral part of the hydrologic cycle. Recognition of this relationship is pertinent when assessing the components of an ecosystem, or while examining factors such as water quality or quantity in a watershed. A field study was conducted in 1994 and 1995 to understand the interaction of groundwater and surface water in the Raisin River watershed, near Cornwall, Ontario. A number of variables were examined to describe the regional groundwater system and to determine the magnitude of the groundwater contribution to the river. The Raisin River lies within an agricultural region which relies heavily on groundwater use. The regional groundwater supply is predominantly from a limestone aquifer underlying various surficial deposits (primarily glacial till). Groundwater movement appears to be in a southeasterly direction, towards the St. ~awrenceRiver. Seepage meters, mini-piezometers, and a falling head permeameter were used to i) measure the flux of groundwater into (positive seepage) or out (negative seepage) of the Raisin River, and ii) measure the hydraulic conductivity of the Raisin River sediments. Measurements were made at thirteen sites within the watershed. To identify the source of groundwater and study processes of streamflow generation during storm runoff, surface water, groundwater, and rainwater samples were collected for environmental isotopes (oxygen-18 and deuterium). Raisin River discharge data was also analysed for further insight into groundwater and surface water relationships. Seepage measurements and hydraulic conductivities exhibit significant variability. The coefficients of variation for seepage measurements ranged from 20.3 to 392 %, and for hydraulic conductivity from 0 to 161 %, depending on the site. Seepage flux ranges from 2.23 x loe8to -9.82 x 10 -9 m3 m-2 s-1 , and hydraulic conductivity ranges from 1o8 to 1o0 ms". Measurements indicate that seepage can be positive or negative, depending on spatial location or time of year. This suggests that few measurements in space or time can misrepresent the flow regime status of the watershed. Environmental isotope analyses indicate that meteoric water is the source of local groundwater with a mean residence time of approximately 4 months. Oxygen-18 and deuterium results also indicate that after a storm event, groundwater composed 63% of total stream discharge. Cross-correlation of Raisin River discharge data and Comwall area precipitation indicates that the peak response in the river is approximately two days after a storm event. These variables indicate that groundwater/surface water relationships should be taken into account if decisions are made with respect to water quality or quantity. iii Acknowledgements The author would like to first thank the Institute for Research on the Environment and Economy (IREE) at the University of Ottawa for funding her research. The author is also truly grateful for the patience, help and guidance of Dr. Michel Robin, Thesis Advisor. The author would like to express gratitude to the following people who were a tremendous help in the field: Greg Cane, Anne Watelet, Hassan Mimejad, Miriam Kofri, Johannes Barth, John Torrance, and Jeff Carling. The author would especially like to thank Bahram Daneshfar for computer/GIS assistance throughout. The author is also grateful for the assistance of Robert Hilliard and Mike Scaves at the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Energy; Doug Rowe at Environment Canada; Richard Pilon at the Raisin Region Conservation Authority; Sid Van der Veen and Dale Miller at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture; John Loop at the Ottawa-Carleton Geochemistry Laboratory; Natalie Morriset and Gilles St-Jean at the Ottawa- Carleton Stable Isotope Laboratory; Dr. Ian Clarke at the University of Ottawa, and Gaetane Bellmare at IREE. ABSTRACT i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii CHAPTER 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1 1.I BACKGROUND 1.2 SCOPEOF WORK 1.3 0 W ECTIVES OF THIS STUDY CHAPTER 2.0 STUDY AREA AND SITE DESCRIPTIONS 6 2.1 LOCATION 2.2 TOPOGRAPHY 2.3 LANDUSE 2.4 CLIMATE 2.5 SITE DESCRIPTIONSAND SOIL CLASSIF~CAT~ONS 2.5.1 STORMONTCOUNTY SITES 2.5.2 GLENGARRYCOUNTY SITES CHAPTER 3.0 GEOLOGY AND REGIONAL HYDROGEOLOGY 19 3.1 BEDROCKGEOLOGY (PALEOZOICERA) 3.2 SURFICIALGEOLOGY (CENOZOICERA) 3.2.1 GLACIALDEPOSITS 3.2.2 POSTGLACIAL DEPOSITS 3.3 STRUCT~JRALGEOLOGY 3.4 REGIONALHYDROGEOLOGY 3.4.1 AQUIFERS 3.4.2 GROUNDWATERRECHARGE/DISCHARGE ZONES 3.4.3 GROUNDWATERFLOW 3.4.4 REGIONALGROUNDWATER QUALITY 3.5 DISCUSSION 37 CHAPTER 4.0 SURFACE WATEWGROUNDWATER INTERACTION 41 4.2 PREVIOUS RESEARCH WITH SEEPAGEMETERS AND MINI-PIEZOMETERS 44 4.3 PRESENT STUDY 47 4.3.1 METHODOLOGYOF FIELD MEASUREMENTS 47 4.3.2 PRESENTSTUDY RESULTS 49 4.3.3 ERRORESTIMATION 53 4.4 HYDRAULIC GRADIENTMEASUREMENTS 53 4.4.1 SPATIALVARIABILITY OF HYDRAULICGRADIENT MEASUREMENTS 54 4.4.2 COMPARISONBY PIEZOMETER- ANOVA RESULTS 56 4.5 ESTIMATES OF GROUNDWATERSEEPAGE FLUX, 1995 56 4.5.1 TEMPORALVARIABILITY OF SEEPAGEFLUX ESTIMATES - ALL SITES 57 4.5.2 TEMPORALVARIABILITY OF GROUNDWATER SEEPAGE FLUXESTIMATES - SINGLE - SITE 59 4.5.3 SPATIALVARIABILITY OF GROUNDWATER SEEPAGE FLUX ESTIMATES- SINGLE SITE 59 4.5.4 COMPARISONOF DIRECTTO ESTIMATED SEEPAGEFLUX MEASUREMENTS 60 4.6 REFERENCES 62 CHAPTER 5.0 HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY OF RAISIN RIVER SEDIMENTS 64 5.2 FIELD MEASUREMENTS 5.3 VARIABILITY OF K MEASUREMENTS 5.4 REFERENCES CHAPTER 6.0 RAISIN RIVER DISCHARGE AND PRECIPITATION DATA ANALYSES70 6.1 BASEFLOW CONTRIBUTIONS FROM STREAM HYDROGRAPHS 6.2 PRECIPITATIONAND STREAMDISCHARGE 6.3 PRECIPITATION AND GROUNDWATERRELATIONSHIPS 6.4 COMPARISONOF DISCHARGEVOLUME vs STORMVOLUME 6.6 REFERENCES CHAPTER 7.0 STABLE ISOTOPES 86 7.1 INTRODUCTION 7.2 lSOTOPlC COMPOSITION OF WATERS IN THE RAISIN RIVER WATERSHED 7.2.1 RAINFAU 7.2.2 SURFACEWATER 7.2.3 GROUNDWATER 7.2.4 TILE DRAINAGE 7.3 MEANRESIDENCE TIME OF METEORIC WATER IN WATERSHED 7.4 lSOTOPlC SEPARATION OF A STORM HYDROGRAPH 7.5 REFERENCES CHAPTER 8.0 GEOCHEMISTRY OF WATER SAMPLES 105 8.1 INTRODUCTloN 105 iii 8.2 METHODOF ANALYSIS 8.3 RESULTS 8.2.1 CHLORIDE 8.2.2 NITRATE 8.2.3 SULPHATE 8.2.4 IRON 8.2.5 SODIUM 8.3 INFLUENCEOF BEDROCK 8.4 CONCLUSION 8.5 REFERENCES APPENDIX 1 v Al.l BASEMAP vi A1.2 ELEVATIONMAP vi A1.3 WATERWELL DATA vi A1.3.1 WATERWELL COMPLETION vii A1.3.2 POTENTIOMETRICSURFACE vii A13.3 DEPTH OF OVERBURDEN ix A1.4 BEDROCKGEOLOGY AND SURFICIALGEOLOGY MAPS X ~1.5REFERENCES xi APPENDIX 2 2.1 A2.1 SEEPAGEMETER 2.1 A2.2 SAMPLECALCULATION OF GROUNDWATERSEEPAGE FLUX, Q 2.2 A2.3 MINI-PIEZOMETERS 2.2 A2.4 1994 AND 1994 GROUNDWATERSEEPAGE FLUXMEASUREMENTS, HYDRAULIC GRADIENT MEASUREMENTS, PND ESTIMATESOF GROUNDWATER SEEPAGEFLUX 2.4 A2.5 ESTIMATEDSEEPAGE FLUX VS TIME FIGURES FOR 1995 2.29 A2.6 ANOVA RESULTSFOR COMPARISON OF SEEPAGE FLUX MEASUREMENTS AND ESTIMATES 2.49 A2.7 ESTIMATIONOF ERR~RON SEEPAGEFLUX MEASUREMENTS FROM ANOVA 2.50 APPENDIX 3 3.1 A3.1 ANOVA RESULTSFOR HYDRAULICGRADIENTS COMPARED BY PIEZOMETERSET (SITES NO. 5 AND 7A) AND BY PIEZOMETER(SITE 13) 3.1 A3.2 TEMPORALVARIABILITY OF SEEPAGEFLUX ESTIMATES 3.4 A3.3 F TESTRESULTS 3.5 APPENDIX 4 4.1 A4.1 CALCULATIONOF K - METHOD 1 4.1 A4.2.1 SAMPLECALCULATION OF K (TYPEI) 4.6 A4.2.2 SAMPLECALCULATION OF K (TYPE2) 4.6 A4.2.3. PRECISIONAND COMPARISONOF THE TWO K MEASUREMENTMETHODS 4.7 A4.3 SAMPLECALCULATION OF WEIGHTEDMEAN K 4.8 A4.4 HYDRAULICCONDUCTIVITY MEASUREMENTS, 199411995 4.1 0 v APPENDIX 5 5.1 ~5.1DETERMINATION OF GROUNDWATER DISCHARGE FROM STREAM HYDROGRAPHS 5.1 A5.2 SAMPLECALCULATIONS 5.3 A5.3 ESTIMATIONOF GROUNDWATERDISCHARGE ALONG THE MAIN BRANCH 5.3 A5.4 RAISIN R. DISCHARGEAND CORNWALLAREA PRECIPITATION GRAPHS, 1994 - 1995 5.4 A5.5 RAISIN RIVER STAGEAND GROUNDWATER SEEPAGEGRAPHS, SITE NOS. 7A AND 8, OCTOBER1995 5.8 A5.6 SAMPLECALCULATION OF DISCHARGEVOLUME 5.9 A5.7 REFERENCES 5.1 1 I APPENDIX 6 6.1 A6.1 OXYGEN-18 ISOTOPE ANALYSIS A6.2 DEUTERIUMANALYSIS A6.3 REFERENCES APPENDIX 7 7.1 A7.1 DELTAOXYGEN-1 8 AND DEUTERIUMDATA 7.1 A7.2 CALCULATIONOF MEANRESIDENCE TIME OF METEORICWATER IN WATERSHED 7.7 A7.3 CALCULATIONOF RESIDENCETIME, T 7.7 A7.4 I.A.E.A. STABLEISOTOPE DATAFOR PRECIPITATION IN OTTAWA,1989 TO 1994 7.9 A7.5 ADDITIONALOXYGEN-1 8 VS TIME GRAPHSFOR OTTAWAPRECIPITATION (1990 TO 1994) 7.1 1 A7.6 STATISTICALRESULTS 7.14 A7.6.1 COMPARISONOF GROUNDWATERAND SURFACEWATER (COLLECTED ON SAME DAY)7.14 A7.6.2. SPATIALAND TEMPORALVARIABILITY OF STABLEISOTOPE CONTENT IN WATER SAMPLES- ANOVA RESULTS 7.15 APPENDIX 8 8.1 A8.1 ISOTOPIC SEPARATIONOF STORMHYDROGRAPH A8.2 UNCERTAINTY(EXPRESSED AS VARIANCE)OF Qp APPENDIX 9 9.5 Chapter 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Background Hydrogeological research in the following thesis has contributed, in part, to a larger study called the "Ecosystem Recovery on the St. Lawrence River", being led by the Institute for Research on the Environment and Economy (IREE) at the University of Ottawa. Many different disciplines from academia, various levels and departments of government, and community were involved in this study, which has focused on the City of Cornwall, Ontario, the Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne, and the St. Lawrence River. 1.2 Scope of Work The area of study chosen for this thesis is the Raisin River watershed, north of Cornwall, which drains into the St. Lawrence River. It was postulated that this basin could be representative of similar, small agricultural watersheds which contribute to the flow of the St. Lawrence River. Two other studies were undertaken concurrently in the Raisin River watershed: a study of the groundwater geochemistry and potential for groundwater contamination from agricultural sources by Greg Cane, also of the Department of Geology; and a study of the synchronism of hydrological events with agricultural practices and impacts on surface water quality by Anne Watelet, at the Department of Geography (University of Ottawa).