Pre-development hydrologic conditions of the Salt River Indian Reservation, East Salt River Valley, central Arizona, with an emphasis on the groundwater flow regime Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Porcello, John Joseph, 1963- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 05/10/2021 08:42:28 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/277174 INFORMATION TO USERS The most advanced technology has been used to photo­ graph and reproduce this manuscript from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. 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Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. University Microfilms International A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Order Number 1339055 Pre-development hydrologic conditions of the Salt River Indian Reservation, East Salt River Valley, central Arizona, with an emphasis on the groundwater flow regime Porccllo, John Joseph, M.S. The University of Arizona, 1989 UMI 300 N. ZeebRd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 PRE-DEVELOPMENT HYDROLOGIC CONDITIONS OF THE SALT RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION, EAST SALT RIVER VALLEY, CENTRAL ARIZONA, WITH AN EMPHASIS ON THE GROUND-WATER FLOW REGIME by John Joseph Porcello A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF HYDROLOGY AND WATER RESOURCES In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE WITH A MAJOR IN HYDROLOGY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 198 8 2 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interest of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This^elu bis has been approved on the date shown below: (AaTh~ (/'((iMcx(p IM !/ /zc? /$& Thomas Maddock, III / /Date Professor of Hydrology and Water Resources 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Numerous people within the Hydrology and Water Resources Department at the University of Arizona and the Arizona District of the U.S. Geological Survey's Water Resources Division deserve thanks for their assistance in the timely completion of this work. Prof. Thomas Maddock, III provided essential support as thesis-committee chairman and inspired the search for historic and prehistoric information, and Prof. T.C. Yeh and Dr. Robert D. MacNish provided valuable reviews of this manuscript as additional members of the committee. Stanley A. Leake, Randall T. Hanson, and Donald R. Pool of the Arizona District provided invaluable reviews of technical aspects and the initial manuscript draft. Bert W. Thomsen and James H. Eychaner of the Arizona District deserve special thanks for their assistance during my familiarization with the study area and for helping me identify important literature references. Dallas Reigle of the Hydrologic Division of the Salt River Project provided data on the construction and flows of the canal system at and below Granite Reef Dam, and Lavina Paulsell and David Introcaso of the Historical Division provided access to archived records dating to 1905. Lynn S. Teague of the Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona provided references and insight relating to flow and storage in prehistoric water distribution systems. Financial support for this study was provided by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, representing the Salt River Pima Indian tribe. Special thanks are deserving to Prof. Soroosh Sorooshian and Thomas W. Anderson, who each helped me secure this research topic and the associated funding. George S. Smith, Brenda K. Powell, and Mark R. Werley of the Arizona District provided indispensable aid in producing map figures for this report, while Barbara 0. Favor provided guidance in the manuscript format. My family deserves more thanks than I can properly express, particularly my parents, Drs. Leonard J. and Patricia B. Porcello. They have given support in uncountable ways since I began my education at the University of Arizona and have been the principal inspiration for the enthusiasm with which I have embraced my studies. March 21, 1989 ERRATA to a thesis submitted in 1988 to the faculty of the Department of Hydrology and Water Resources, University of Arizona, entitled PRE-DEVELOPMENT HYDROLOGIC CONDITIONS OF THE SALT RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION, EAST SALT RIVER VALLEY, CENTRAL ARIZONA, WITH AN EMPHASIS ON THE GROUND-WATER FLOW REGIME by John Joseph Porcello 1) Page 27, 4th line. Replace "... on each side of the river ..." with "... along the northern and southern banks of the river ..." 2) Page 37, 2nd complete paragraph, 2nd sentence. Replace "Mann and Wilson (1983) ..." with "Mann and Rohne (1983) ..." 3) Page 49, 2nd complete paragraph, 3rd sentence. Replace "... (U.S. Geological Survey, 1940)." with "... (Williams and Crawford, 1940)." 4) Page 58, first complete paragraph, 3rd sentence. Replace "The middle unit was at least partially saturated ..." with "The upper unit was at least partially saturated ..." 5) Page 82, second complete paragraph, last sentence. Replace 7,700 acre-ft/yr with 7,500 acre-ft/yr. 6) Page 100, (Table 7), left-most column. Replace "Mountain-front recharge" with Mountain-front recharge and subsurface inflow". Add footnote indicating that the value of 7,000 acre-ft/yr appearing in the right-hand column for this flow component consists of 6,700 acre-ft/yr of subsurface inflow to the reservation from adjacent parts of Paradise Valley and 300 acre-ft/yr of mountain-front recharge that occurs within the reservation boundaries. 3fc> 2 7) Replace last sentence on page 130 with the following: Individual river recharge and discharge fluxes were negatively and positively correlated, respectively, to changes in boundary flux magnitudes, thereby creating the strong negative correlation of net river flux to boundary fluxes. 8) Replace the note "Geology from M.E. Cooley (1967)" with "Geology from M.E. Cooley (1973)" on figures 2, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 18 (pages 24, 69, 71, 72, 95, 102, 104, 106, and 112 respectively). 9) Facing page' explanation sheets for select map figures: a) Replace "... in feet below land surface ..." with the phrase "... in feet above National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929..." for the following: .1) Figure 8, facing page for page 69, first two principal headings ii) Figure 14, facing page for page 102, first two principal headings iii) Figure 15, facing page for page 104, first two principal headings b) Figure 10, facing page for page 72. Contours are labeled with values in feet, these values representing both the thickness of the upper unit and the elevation of the base of the upper unit below land surface. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 6 LIST OF TABLES 8 ABSTRACT 9 INTRODUCTION 10 Purpose and scope 10 Physical setting 12 Climate 15 Previous investigations ................ 16 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 19 History of settlement along the Salt River 19 Evolution of regional land and water use patterns 22 SURFACE-WATER RESOURCES 30 Salt River annual flow record 31 Historic gage records 32 Tree-ring records 47 Ephemeral streamflows 51 HYDROGEOLOGY 53 Description of lithologic units 53 Buried ridges 59 Regional transmissivity distribution . .' 60 Early wells and water-level data 62 Influences on early water-level data 70 5 Regional sources and sinks of pre-development ground-water flow. 78 Pre-development ground-water flow budget 80 SIMULATION OF PRE-DEVELOPMENT GROUND-WATER FLOW 89 Model construction 94 Simulated steady-state conditions..... 100 Calibrated head distribution 101 Calibrated ground-water flow components 109 Calibrated parameters Ill Model sensitivity 114 Sensitivity of heads 115 Sensitivity of ground-water flow budget 124 CONSIDERATIONS FOR FUTURE STUDY 132 SUMMARY 134 APPENDIX A: Well numbering system in Arizona 143 APPENDIX B: Conversion Factors 144 REFERENCES 146 6 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1.