Geohydrology of the Southeastern Coastal Plain aquifer system in Alabama

Abstract

The Regional Aquifer-System Analysis (RASA) Program was started in 1978 following a congressional mandate to develop quantitative appraisals of the major groundwater systems of the United States. The RASA Program represents a systematic effort to study a number of the Nation's most important aquifer systems, which in aggregate underlie much of the country and which represent an important component of the Nation's total water supply. In general, the boundaries of these studies are identified by the hydrologic extent of each system and accordingly transcend the political subdivisions to which investigations have often arbitrarily been limited in the past. The broad objective for each study is to assemble geologic, hydrologic, and geochemical information, to analyze and develop an understanding of the system, and to develop predictive capabilities that will contribute to the effective management of the system. The use of computer simulation is an important element of the RASA studies, both to develop an understanding of the natural, undisturbed hydrologic system and the changes brought about in it by human activities, and to provide a means of predicting the regional effects of future pumping or other stresses. The final interpretive results of the RASA Program are presented in a series of U.S. Geological Survey Professional Papers that describe the geology, hydrology, and geochemistry of each regional aquifer system. Each study within the RASA Program is assigned a single Professional Paper number, and where the volume of interpretive material warrants, separate topical chapters that consider the principal elements of the investigation may be published. The series of RASA interpretive reports begins with Professional Paper 1400 and thereafter will continue in numerical sequence as the interpretive products of subsequent studies become available.

Reactive transport of trace elements and isotopes in the Eutaw coastal plain aquifer, Alabama

“…For over 150 years the Eutaw aquifer has been an important resource for central‐south Alabama, and continues today supplying water for more than 250,000 residents in 18 counties [ Cook , 1993]. There have been many studies concerning the geology, stratigraphy, hydrology, and geochemistry of aquifers in central Alabama [ Lee , 1985; King , 1990; Planert et al , 1993; Barker and Pernik , 1994; Floesser , 1996; Cook , 1993, 1997]. Despite its importance as a major source of water supply, the origin of trace metals, the nature of water‐sediment‐bacteria interaction, fresh‐water recharge rates, and the influence of microbial processes on water chemistry remain poorly understood.…”