Groundwater Quality Impact Assessment

Types of Service
• Groundwater Modeling
• Solute Transport Modeling
• Particle Tracking
• Conceptual Model Development
• Evaluation of Groundwater and Surface Water Interactions
• Water Budget Analysis
• Flow Velocity Analysis

Media
• Groundwater
• Surface Water

Contaminants
• Nitrate
• Ammonia Nitrate

Project Highlights
• Members of TechSolve provided groundwater modeling services of a 15 square mile area in the Fountain Creek Valley, Colorado Springs, Colorado.  The discovery of elevated nitrate concentrations in the aquifer prompted numerous investigations by the USGS.  Those reports concluded that the primary source of nitrate to the aquifer was wastewater effluent discharged to the creek.
• Previous model did not account for the complex hydrogeologic flow regime revealed through the collection and analysis of additional data.
• Groundwater model was used to evaluate the effects of increased river stage and increased pumping in the alluvial aquifer on steady-state groundwater elevations predicted by the model.
• Solute transport modeling was used to simulate potential impact of local surface water bodies on the nitrate concentrations in the alluvial aquifer.
• Evaluated complex flow system resulting from erratic bedrock topography, intricate surface water/groundwater interaction, highly variable aquifer thickness, subsurface inflow from adjacent ancestral valleys, groundwater withdrawal and injection, and infiltration from recharge ponds, ditches and upland recharge areas, and discharge to a surface water body.
• The importance of understanding the relationship between surface water and groundwater was demonstrated in the study.  Evaluation of bedrock incision and surface water gain/loss studies assisted in the determination of the local hydraulic gradient.
• Completed local water budget and flow velocity analysis, which revealed that groundwater flow directions deviated from original interpreted flow direction.  This resulted in identification of new potential sources of contamination.