Groundwater monitoring on the Fennessey Ranch, TX Lucia Upchurch GIS in Water Resources November 28, 2006

Fennessey Ranch Part of the newly designated MANERR 3,324 acre Ranch 10 artesian wells on property 4+ TWDB groundwater wells in or nearby

Goals Extract precipitation (in progress)/surface flow data Examine preliminary data from Fennessey Ranch Examine potential recharge and discharge in this aquifer Correlate surface and groundwater flow (not completed)

Data Sources DEM: http://seamless.usgs.gov NHDplus: Rae Mooney, Tyler Jantzen MANERR base maps: Sally Morehead Land Cover: National Landcover Dataset 1992; http://seamless.usgs.gov/website/seamless/viewer.php Texas Water Development Board database: http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/mapping/gisdata.asp Fennessey Ranch shapefile: created with help of Tyler McEwan Texas General Land Office: hydrography; http://www.glo.state.tx.us/gisdata/gisdata.html Fennessey Ranch Wells: Chip Breier

Surface Flow: Watershed delineation using Terrain Preprocessing 1 DEM Catchment delineation Flowline delineation Close-up of Fennessey 2 3 4

Surface and Groundwater resources: Hydrologic data

Surface Flow: USGS stream gage

Factors affecting surface/groundwater interaction: Land Cover (primarily pasture, herbaceous wetlands, and shrubland) Soil moisture capacity (in progress) Precipitation/weather downloader (in progress)

Preliminary Fennessey Ranch data courtesy of Chip Breier Well location, as well as nutrients, discharge rate, salinity, and radium isotopic data

Radionuclides- useful for Groundwater flow/Groundwater Discharge/Recharge Half-life Ra-226 1600 yrs Ra-228 5.75 yrs Ra-224 3.64 days Ra-223 11.7 days

Radium in Fennessey Wells Higher salinity should increase all Ra Big bubbles= more saline Ra-228/Ra-224 should be in equilibrium (1:1) Ra-228/Ra-224 show similar patterns

Radium, cont’d Showing same trend with salinity Not completely linear (removal process at highest point?) Can be useful in estimating groundwater discharge and recharge Average recharge rate for this aquifer is 0.01-3.0 mm/yr (http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/Gam/resources/resources.htm)

Future Goals Short Term Precipitation Soil cover/moisture capacity TWDB Long Term Monitor salinity, nutrients, radium Study discharge/recharge of aquifer Look at nutrient levels to establish input to Copano Bay

Questions? Comments? Thanks to all who helped me!