DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

RALPH M. PARSONS LABORATORY

CEE 1.72 -- Groundwater Hydrology Final

(1) Simplify the following sentence so it is a clear statement that preserves the obvious meaning.
Your revision should contain the fewest words possible without losing meaning. Do not change
any words, just eliminate (cross-out) unnecessary words. This is not a joke question. (10 pts.)

The unchanging steady-state water levels of the potentiometric surface in the phreatic
zone of a subsurface saturated confined geologic groundwater aquifer indicated there
was convergent flow of moving fluid water toward a fully penetrating and fully
screened pumping water well.

(2) Describe the differences between the following terms. (12 points)

(a) Dispersivity, Dispersion Coefficient, and Diffusion Coefficient.

(b) Effective stress and total stress.

(c) Hysteresis and hystericalness.

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 (c) Langmuir isotherm and linear isotherm.

(3) Describe two different mechanisms that lead to overland flow. Contrast the
conditions under which these two different processes occur. (10pts.)

(4) Zeke , the well driller with a healthy curiosity, has a question for you. He had
installed a set of wells in an aquifer he knows (accurately) to be confined. One of the
wells was turned on and pumped continuously. Head measurements were taken at the
surrounding wells. Playing around with Darcy’s law, he noticed an “odd”
phenomenon: based on his calculations from the heads of surrounding wells, the
amount of water flowing toward the well appeared to increase over time. Yet the
pumping rate at the well was constant. Explain to the well-driller what was happening.
Draw cross-sections of the potentiometric surface around the well with time. (10pts.)

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(5) Draw a cross-section of a subsurface water system (i.e., everything below ground
level). Label the following: water table, phreatic zone, vadose zone, capillary fringe,
unconfined aquifer, confined aquifer, potentiometric surface for the confined aquifer,
perched water table, and, in the correct location, an artesian (flowing) well. Draw an
arrow in both the top and bottom aquifers showing the direction of flow. The grocery
cart and shape of the land surface are of no importance. (15 points)

Water
Level
Water
Groce ry Cart Level

Land Sur fac e

Clay Lens

well

Aquitard, Confining Layer

Wells are only open to the aquifer below the confinin g layer

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(6) A well is injecting water in a confined aquifer with homogenous, isotropic S and T.
This aquifer is bounded on the north side by an impermeable crystalline rock outcrop,
and on the east by a lake. These two boundaries meet at approximately right angles as
shown below.

(a) Describe how changes in head in this aquifer may be calculated using image wells.
Show the position of the image wells. (10 pts.)

No Flow

100 m

Constant 100 m Well injecting

(b) Will the head change at the well be greater or less than it would be if the boundaries did not
exist (i.e. if the well where in an infinite aquifer)? (1point) Why? (9 points)

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 (c) Once the system has reached steady state, the head at the well is 5 m above the head at the
constant head boundary. Draw a flow net with head lines at 1 m intervals, and appropriate flow
lines. Don’t worry about being precise, just try to show the principles features of the system and
avoid anything physically impossible. (15 points)

No Flow

Constant
head

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(7) The figure below shows a cross-section of a homogeneous, isotropic, confined
aquifer with a large-capacity pumping well. The figure is not drawn to scale. The flows
in the rivers are measured 5000 m upstream and 5000 m downstream of the well, and
the difference between the upstream and downstream flows is due solely to discharge
or recharge of this aquifer. (No flow goes to or from the other sides of the river.) Prior
to pumping, the flow in West River increased by 1 m3/s along the 10,000 m reach, and
the flow in East river decreased by 1 m3/s along the 10,000 m reach. (i.e the flow in and
out of the rivers is 10-4 m3/s per meter length of river.) There is no other discharge or
recharge to this aquifer. The head in the river remains constant over time and along the
river. The aquifer remains confined. The clay of the confining unit, and of the unit
beneath the aquifer is completely impermeable.

Q
W River Well E

Aq u ifer

20 0 0 m 10 0 0 m

The following quantities are known:

Aquifer Porosity = 0.2.

(a) On the graph below sketch the head in the aquifer prior to pumping. (5 pts.)

East R i ver
Hei ght

West Ri ver
Hei ght

Aq ui fer
Top

West Ri ver East R i ver

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(b) What are the values for transmissivity and conductivity of the aquifer? (5 pts.)

(c) What is the groundwater velocity at the well location prior to pumping? (5 pts.)

(d) If everything where held constant (including the hydraulic conductivity), but the
porosity was increased to 0.4, what would happen to recharge and discharge of the
rivers? (5 pts.)

(e) Using the table below, go back to part (a) and add plots of the head at years 2, 4 and
6. (The values of head are not important, but curves should have the correct shape and
be placed correctly relative to each other.) The table below shows the discharge and
recharge to the East and West rivers after the well is turned on, pumping at a constant
rate of 0.4 m3/s. The values are for the end of each year. (5 pts.)

Time Aquifer discharge to West River Aquifer recharge along 10,000 m

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 3 0.87 1.25
4 0.85 1.25
5 0.85 1.25
6 0.85 1.25

(f) Explain why the amount of water flowing into the aquifer (recharge – discharge)
increases until year 4, then stops increasing. (10 pts.)

(8) The diagram below shows a confined, homogeneous, and isotropic aquifer beneath a circular
island of radius 100 m in a lake. A pumping well is located in the middle of the island. Flow is
steady state. In the picture below the hatched circle in the middle is the well, which is fully
screened across the entire aquifer. Flow is horizontal to the well. The confined aquifer is 8 m
thick. The extraction rate is 75.4 m3/day. The hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer is 30 m/day.
The porosity is 0.3. Assume no flow through the confining layer and steady-state

WELL
100 m

ISLAN D

LAKE

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conditions.

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(a) What is the gradient of hydraulic head at the edge of the island? Assume no flow
through the confining layer and steady-state conditions. (10 points)

(b) The lake contains 1 µg/L bromide (not enough to significantly change the density).
Bromide is a conservative tracer (i.e. no chemical reaction, or sorption), and does not
exist in the groundwater before pumping. If we assume that both diffusion and
dispersion are negligible how long does it takes for the bromide to reach the well after
pumping commences? Still assume steady state. (10 points)

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(c) The lake also contains 1 µg/L lithium. Lithium sorption may be accurately modeled
with a linear equilibrium isotherm. From a line of sampling wells you determine that
just when the bromide reaches the pumping well, the lithium has traveled only 29.3 m
from the edge of the island towards the pumping well. What is the retardation factor
for lithium?(10 points)

(d) Plot the breakthrough curves at the well for bromide and lithium. Also show a
breakthrough curve for bromide when dispersion occurs. Is the breakthrough time of
0.9 µg/L and 0.1 µg/L of bromide increased or decreased compared to the arrival time
of the solute front with no dispersion? (10 points)

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