Enhanced recharge and karst, Edwards aquifer, south central Texas
- Univ. of Texas, San Antonio, TX (United States). Center for Water Research
Enhanced recharge is a water management strategy which can add significant quantities of ground water to the available water resources of the San Antonio region by utilizing the immense storage capacity of the unconfined zone of the Edwards aquifer. The Edwards aquifer presently is the sole source of water for a population of over 1,200,000, meeting public supply, industrial, and irrigation demands over a wide area of south central Texas. Valdina Farms Sinkhole is located adjacent to Seco Creek in Medina County and is in the recharge zone of the aquifer. Initial studies indicated that the sinkholes was capable of taking flood flows from Seco Creek and functioning as a recharge structure. Stream channels in the cavern system associated with Valdina Farms Sinkhole were incised into cave deposits and flood debris was present in the caverns at some distance from the sinkhole. Chemical analyses of samples of water from the cave and from nearby wells showed nitrate concentrations that decreased with distance from the cavern. Gradient of the potentiometric surface in the vicinity of the cave was very low, indicating high values of hydraulic conductivity for the aquifer. Based on evidence from these field studies a dam was constructed in 1982 on Seco Creek and a flood diversion channel was excavated to the sinkhole. Reservoir capacity is 2 acre-feet and design recharge rate is 3.8-6.7 m[sup 3]/sec. Annual recharge at the sinkhole has varied from 0 during periods of low runoff to 12,915 acre-feet.
- OSTI ID:
- 6138474
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9303212-; CODEN: GAAPBC
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 25:1; Conference: 27. annual Geological Society of America (GSA) South-Central Section meeting, Fort Worth, TX (United States), 15-16 Mar 1993; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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