Proposed 10-year plan for continuation of hydrologic studies of the Edwards Aquifer, San Antonio area, Texas

Abstract

The importance of the Edwards aquifer as a freshwater resource and its susceptibility to being contaminated, being over utilized, or both resulted in the development of a proposed 10-year plan to monitor and study its hydrology. The plan proposes adjustments to the current monitoring activities of computing and measuring recharge, discharge, withdrawals, water levels, and water quality. To conduct the needed special studies, the plan recognizes the need for the construction and drilling of many new wells at specific locations and to selected depths. Many of the wells will be in clusters so that data can be obtained on a stratigraphic basis. Some of the topics identified for special study include: (1) The potential of saline water entering the freshwater zone from the downdip boundary; (2) the possibility of water leaking into the aquifer from an overlying aquifer; (3) the effects of urbanization on groundwater quality in local areas; (4) the movement and dissipation of a recharge water plume; (5) the influx of water from the Glen Rose Formation; (6) the effects of the fault barriers, regional dense bed, and irregular geologic framework on groundwater flow patterns; (7) natural recharge-discharge relationships; (8) the aquifer stagestorage relationship; (9) natural water-quality evolution; and (10) a refinement of the hydrogeologic framework in a local area.