This is a digital document from the collections of the Wyoming Water Resources Data System (WRDS) Library. For additional information about this document and the document conversion process, please contact WRDS at [email protected] and include the phrase “Digital Documents” in your subject heading. To view other documents please visit the WRDS Library online at: http://library.wrds.uwyo.edu Mailing Address: Water Resources Data System University of Wyoming, Dept 3943 1000 E University Avenue Laramie, WY 82071 Physical Address: Wyoming Hall, Room 249 University of Wyoming Laramie, WY 82071 Phone: (307) 766-6651 Fax: (307) 766-3785 Funding for WRDS and the creation of this electronic document was provided by the Wyoming Water Development Commission (http://wwdc.state.wy.us) POTENTIAL WATER-WELL SITES FOR THE TOWNS OF FRANNIE AND DEAVER, WYOMING February 15, 1985 WESTERN WATER CONSULTANTS, INC. CONSULTANTS IN ENGINEERING HYDROLOGY AND HYDROGEOLOGY P.O. Box 4128 P.O. Box 3042 lAramie, Wyoming 82071 Sheridan, Wyoming 82801 ~;~·;.-;,t'o-;:·-~.:-.i~,:~, (307) 742-0031 (307) 672-0761 MEMBER FIRM POTENTIAL WATER-WELL SITES FOR THE TOWNS OF FRANNIE AND DEAVER, WYOMING February 15, 1985 Prepared for: Town of Frannie Frannie, Wyoming 82423 and Town of Deaver Deaver, Wyoming 82421 Prepared by: Western Water Consultants, Inc. 611 Skyline Road 2 North Main - Suite 405 Laramie, Wyoming 82070 Sheridan, Wyoming 82801 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I RECOMMENDATIONS. ... ••• •. .. .•...•. .••. .. ... ... 1 II INTRODUCTION ...•...•••......•..........••......••...•. 5 Present Water Supplies •.......•••........•....... 5 Remed i a 1 Act ions ..•......•.•............•........ 6 Basis for Drilling Site Selection ....•......•.... 8 III SELECTION OF PROPOSED WELL SITES ......••.....••••..... 10 Geo logy .......................................... 10 Hydrogeology..................................... 15 Aquifer Permeability and Well Yields •••..••• 15 Ground-Water Flow........................... 20 Ground-Water Quality........................ 22 IV WELL DESIGN, CONSTRUCTION AND TESTING •••..•..••••..... 26 REFERENCES •••••....•..••••••.••••.•.•••••.••••••••••.• 33 LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE 1 Lithology and Regional Ground-Water Characteristics of Rock Units in the Frannie-Deaver Study Area •••....• 16 2 Parameters to be Analyzed in Samples Collected from the Frannie-Deaver Test Well ..•••....••••.....•.•..... 30 3 Drinking Water Quality Standards .......•.....•••....•• 31 LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE 1 Map of the Frannie-Deaver Area, Wyoming and Montana, Showing Recommended Drilling Location ••••••••••••.....• 2 2 Land Ownership in the Vicinity of the Recommended Test Well Site and Possible Delivery Pipeline Routes .•. 4 3 Lithology, Thickness and Age of Rocks in the Frannie-Deaver Area, Northern Bighorn Basin, Wyomi ng ..•.•••••••.••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 11 4 Generalized Geologic Map of Bedrock in the Vicinity of Frannie and Deaver, Big Horn County, Wyoming and Carbon County, Montana .•••....•.••••....•.•••..••.•.••• 13 5 Schematic Geologic Cross Section Through the Recommended Drilling Locations .••..•.•••••..••••••.... 14 6 Potentiometric Surface Associated with the Madison Aquifer in the Northeastern Big Horn Basin, Wyomi ng ............................................... 21 7 Total Dissolved Solids in the Madison Aquifer in the Northeastern Big Horn Basin, Wyoming ..••.....•••.•...• 23 8 Design of Proposed Madison Test Well for Frannie and Dea ver, Wyomi ng •••..•...•......••••....•.•.•..•..••.•• 27 CHAPTER I RECOMMENDATIONS It is recommended that the Towns of Frannie and Deaver drill a test well in T9S, R26E, section 29, Carbon County, Montana (Figure 1), and complete the well in the Madison aquifer to test the quantity and quality of ground water available for a municipal supply. Existing information indicates that the Madison aquifer would be reached at a drilling depth of about 2,500 feet; drilling should extend through the upper 300 feet of the aqu i fer. The Madi son aqui fer at the test site should have a potentiometric head about 150 feet above the land surface. Based on the specific capacity measured at Cowley's Madison No. 1 well about 8 miles southeast of the proposed Frannie-Deaver wellsite and the drawdown available at the proposed well-site, the proposed well would flow at a rate of about 300 gallons per minute. Water quality data for Madison waters in the area suggest that the water from the proposed well would contain less than 500 milligrams per liter (mg/l) total dissolved solids and less than 5 pico Curies per liter (p Ci/l) Radium. The well should be drilled to the top of the Madison aquifer with a 10 3/4-;nch drill bit, and cased with 8 SIB-inch 0.0. casing which would be cemented in place. The well should then be drilled about 300 feet into the Madison aquifer with a 6 3/4-inch drill bit. No well screen would be required. This recoll111ended construction would facilitate installation of a large variety of pumps, should one be required in the future, and would also allow entry of most workover tools should the well require work in the future. 1 r-R...;.• ...;.2~~E·rlR;.;.,;;.2;..;;,6..;,;E.,;.... _______.....:R.:.:., • .:.;26::...!::.,;E'T' !!.:R.~2:.!..7.!:,E.:..... ____ L..!..S. T.' S. RECOMMENDED N • WELL SITE MONTANA _--..,. __.l::"-=-==-====~ 1.!.,.s. WYOMING T.IO S. / AREA OF INTEREST N 'JitANNIE WELL COWWE\.\.E\.Y ---- T ., .. tI------------i----.:~:..L-=---~~-_l ........ T.5IN. R. 98 W., R. 17 W. R.t? w.1 R.leW. o 2 MI. ,'----'--....' SCALE FIGURE MAP OF THE FRANNIE - DEAVER AREA, WYOMING AND MONTANA, SHOWING RECOMMENDED DRILLING LOCATION Ownership of land in the vicinity of the recommended wellsite and possible pipeline routes is shown on Figure 2. The recommended wellsite and part of the delivery pipeline that would be in Montana are on land owned by the American Colloid Company. The remainder of the land in Montana that would be crossed by the pipeline ;s owned by the United States Government under the management of the Bureau of Land Management. The portion of the pipeline in Wyoming crosses lands under private ownership by residents of the Frannie area and by Burlington Northern Railroad. 3 N T 58 N o 2000 Ft. , I I SCALE FIGURE 2 : LAND OWNERSHIP IN THE VICINITY OF THE RECOMMENDED TEST WELL SITE AND POSSIBLE DELIVERY PIPELINE ROUTES 4 CHAPTER II INTRODUCTION This chapter describes the present sources of municipal water for the towns of Frannie and Deaver, problems with those sources, and remedial actions that have been taken in an attempt to alleviate those problems. Also discussed are the criteria used to select a site on which to drill a test hole to explore the possibility of obtaining a new water supply for the towns. Present Water Supplies The Town of Franni-e presently obta ins its muni ci pa 1 water supply from a 4,495-foot deep well drilled in 1955 and completed in the upper Madison Formation. The water from this well contains concentrations of Radium-226 that are about nine times the drinking water standard of 5 p CilL established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, 1976). Recent analyses have also shown that the total dissolved solids content of the water is 1170 milligrams per liter (mg/L), which exceeds the EPA drinking water quality secondary standard of 500 mg/L. Because of the potential health risks attributed to high concentrations of Radium-226 in the Frannie municipal water supply, EPA has urged the Town to pursue options for solving that problem. The Town of Deaver presently obtains its municipal water supply from Deaver Reservoir, which is fed from the Shoshone River through the Garland canal and the Frannie canal, a major lateral of the Garland 5 cana 1 • Deaver trea ts the water from the reservoi r and pi pes it by gravity two to three miles to town. Remedial Actions Western Water Consultants, Inc. was hired by the Town of Frannie to investigate possible solutions to their water-quality problem. In April 1984 the existing well was reamed to remove incrustation inside the casing and was geophysically logged with natural garrma, temperature, ca 1i per, cement bond, and co 11 ar 1ocator tool s. The purpose was to gather detailed well-completion information, evaluate the integrity of the casing and of the cementation of the annulus, and identify zones of anomalously high radioactivity in order to determine the source of the Radium-226. The logs revealed that the casing is corroded and contains holes, and the cement bond between the casing and the well bore is very poor. The combination of these conditions may allow water from formations above the Madison aquifer to enter the well, and it is possible that the Radi um-226 may be enteri ng the we 11 from one of those water-beari ng units. It is also possible, however, that the upper Madison aquifer may be the source of the Radium-226. An attempt was made in August 1984 to isolate and sample water from the Madison aquifer by conducting a packer test on the Frannie well. It was planned to lower a packer on a string of tubing down into the uncased part of the well in the Madison aquifer and inflate the packer to allow only water from the Madison aquifer below the packer to flow up 6 through the tubi ng and to the surface. Water from the i nterva 1 above the packer, which would have included the upper 20 feet of the Madison and the cased part of the well, was to be allowed to flow to the surface between the tubing and the casing. The test would have provided two separate water samples; one from the part of the Madison aquifer below the packer, and another from the uppermost Madison plus any water that might have entered the well through the corroded casing. Both samples were to be analyzed for water quality, and the test would have shown whether the Madi son aqui fer i tse 1f was the source of the Radi um-226. The tes t fa i 1ed, however, because the 1a rge flow through the sma 11 annular space between the packer tool and the well casing prevented the packer tool from being lowered through the casing.