Availability of water from the alluvial, aquifer in part of the Green River Valley, King County, Washington
The availability of ground water was determined for a 1.56-square-mile area in the Green River valley, Washington, where the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe plans to build a fish hatchery. The tribe intends to use ground water to operate the hatchery. The maximum long-term rate of pumping from a pair of properly constructed 12-inch-diameter wells will total about 144 gallons per minute near the center of the valley and only about 22 gallons per minute near the northern edge. Wells drilled to supply large quantities of water from the alluvium should be located where data indicate the greatest saturated thickness of aquifer materials to be. The water table in the alluvial aquifer ranges from 3 to 15 feet below land surface. The saturated thickness of aquifer materials ranges from 0 to 35 feet. The hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer materials is about 130 feet per day, and the leakage coefficient of the riverbed materials under the Green River is about 1.3 feet per day. Recharge to the aquifer from rainfall is about 10 inches per year. A US Geological Survey two-dimensional ground-water-flow model was calibrated to simulate the ground-water flow system in the study area. Measured water levels in the alluvial aquifer were simulated to within about +-1 foot at 7 of 12 observation well locations and to within +-2 feet at all 12 locations. When pumping from the aquifer was simulated, it was found that all water pumped from wells was derived from induced leakage from the Green River into the alluvium and (or) from water moving through the alluvium to the Green River. Pumping from the alluvial aquifer will reduce the flow of Crisp Creek, but the amount of reduction could not be determined from the data available. 5 refs., 12 figs., 4 tabs.
- Research Organization:
- Geological Survey, Tacoma, WA (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 5404568
- Report Number(s):
- USGS/WRI-83-4178; ON: TI85901796
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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