Recharge and discharge calculations to characterize the groundwater hydrologic balance

Conference · Thu Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1998

OSTI ID:361624

Liddle, R G ^[1]

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1. Dept. of the Interior, Knoxville, TN (United States). Office of Surface Mining

Several methods are presented to quantify the ground water component of the hydrologic balance; including (1) hydrograph separation techniques, (2) water budget calculations, (3) spoil discharge techniques, and (4) underground mine inflow studies. Stream hydrograph analysis was used to calculate natural groundwater recharge and discharge rates. Yearly continuous discharge hydrographs were obtained for 16 watersheds in the Cumberland Plateau area of Tennessee. Baseflow was separated from storm runoff using computerized hydrograph analysis techniques developed by the USGS. The programs RECESS, RORA, and PART were used to develop master recession curves, calculate ground water recharge, and ground water discharge respectively. Station records ranged from 1 year of data to 60 years of data with areas of 0.67 to 402 square miles. Calculated recharge ranged from 7 to 28 inches of precipitation while ground water discharge ranged from 6 to 25 inches. Baseflow ranged from 36 to 69% of total flow. For sites with more than 4 years of data the median recharge was 20 inches/year and the 95% confidence interval for the median was 16.4 to 23.8 inches of recharge. Water budget calculations were also developed independently by a mining company in southern Tennessee. Results showed about 19 inches of recharge is available on a yearly basis. A third method used spoil water discharge measurements to calculate average recharge rate to the mine. Results showed 21.5 inches of recharge for this relatively flat area strip mine. In a further analysis it was shown that premining soil recharge rates of 19 inches consisted of about 17 inches of interflow and 2 inches of deep aquifer recharge while postmining recharge to the spoils had almost no interflow component. OSM also evaluated underground mine inflow data from northeast Tennessee and southeast Kentucky. This empirical data showed from 0.38 to 1.26 gallons per minute discharge per unit acreage of underground workings. This is the equivalent to 7 to 24 inches of recharge per year. The four methods provide a good comparative way to quantify the groundwater portion of the hydrologic balance.

• OSTI ID: 361624
• Report Number(s): CONF-9805185--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
AQUIFERS
COAL MINING
GROUNDWATER RECHARGE
HYDROLOGY
SPOIL BANKS
SURFACE MINING
TENNESSEE
UNDERGROUND MINING
WATER INFLUX