Engineering Commons^™

Orphan Boy And Orphan Girl: Historical Information On Groundwater And Flooded Workings, Emelina Doucette

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

Groundwater has historically, and still is, a concern within the mining industry due to the relationships between potential environmental and safety impacts. Montana Technological University uses a once operating silver mine, the Orphan Boy, to provide students with hands-on experience and is known as the Underground Mine Education Center (UMEC). The UMEC, and neighboring Orphan Girl mine located at the World Museum of Mining, have experienced increasing water levels the past few years. A compilation of known information pertaining to the Orphan Girl and Orphan Boy groundwater connections is presented using historical groundwater and mine data, stope books, hydrographs, and …

The Role Of Carbonate Minerals In Arsenic Mobility In A Shallow Aquifer Influenced By A Seasonally Fluctuating Groundwater Table, Jeremy Jensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Arsenic (As) is a poison historically used to great effect before modern detection methods rendered it obsolete. However, the largest mass poisoning in human history occurred due to groundwater in the Bengal Basin contaminated by natural sources of As. Since that time, research has determined that As is found in groundwater worldwide. This includes aquifers located in basin-filled valleys of the western United States. One of these valleys is the Cache Valley Basin located in Northern Utah. This semi-arid region contains carbonate-rich soils and is heavily influenced by snowmelt and seasonal runoff. Previous studies have found that 15% of private …

High-Resolution Timeseries Analysis Of Dynamic Geochemistry: A 27-Well Survey Of Contaminated Groundwater Downstream Of The Former S-3 Ponds, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Emma Dixon

Masters Theses

Spatiotemporal variability of geochemistry of contaminated groundwater has large implications on overall water quality and ability to respond to remedial applications. Gaining knowledge of how geochemistry changes over time in an area can help establish response trends to changing external conditions like weather and level of contamination. In this study, a spatiotemporal survey was performed on 27 wells at the Y-12 Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This was completed to measure diurnal fluxes in geochemistry from seasonal changes and extreme weather conditions in three areas of historically different contamination levels from a single point contamination source. Measurements were gathered over …

An Evaluation Of Bank Storage At Lake Mead Reservoir In The Southwest United States, Jon Woodrow Wilson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A water balance model is employed at Lake Mead to monitor and verify changing hydrology that affects total volume at the reservoir. Bank storage, which is defined as the volume of water captured in permeable lithologic layers subject to changes induced by contact and proximity to an open waterbody, is one component that is updated regularly and is based upon data and methods that were developed in the 1960’s from observations made within the first 30 years of the reservoir's maturation. Since this period, the reservoir has undergone further development and a current understanding of additional hydrologic affects to bank …

An Open-Source Web-Application For Regional Analysis Of Grace Groundwater Data And Engaging Stakeholders In Groundwater Management, Travis Clinton Mcstraw

Theses and Dissertations

Since 2002, NASA's GRACE Satellite mission has allowed scientists of various disciplines to analyze and map the changes in Earth's total water storage on a global scale. Although the raw data is available to the public, the process of viewing, manipulating, and analyzing the GRACE data can be difficult for those without strong technological backgrounds in programming or geospatial software. This is particularly true for water managers in developing countries, where GRACE data could be a valuable asset for sustainable water resource management. To address this problem, I have a developed a utility for subsetting GRACE data to particular regions …

Hydrologic Response Of Headwater Streams Restored With Beaver Dam Analogue Structures, Evan Norman

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

In the semiarid and arid western United States, it is important to understand the potential effects of stream restoration on surface-water and groundwater. In this study, we evaluate the seasonal and annual hydrologic impacts of beaver-dam analogue (BDA) restoration in the Blacktail Creek (BTC) Watershed south of Butte, Montana. We monitored surface water flow, groundwater levels, temperature, and specific conductance primarily using a control-treatment study design. In treated reaches, groundwater levels were closer to the ground surface and showed less seasonal fluctuation. Changes in overall streamflow in the control reaches had stream losses and gains varying from -21.0 to 19.9 …

Quantification Of Septic System Contribution To Nutrient Loads In Surface Waters, Archana Tamang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Freshwater systems worldwide are threatened by excessive nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) loading. This study evaluated the contribution of septic systems to stream nutrient loads in nine subwatersheds. Stream sampling was conducted during low and high discharge conditions, with samples analyzed for total phosphorus (TP), soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP), nitrate (NO₃-N), and acesulfame (ACE; wastewater tracer). Higher septic effluent reached the subwatershed outlets during high discharge conditions. Subwatersheds with newer households had a lower percentage of septic effluent reaching the stream compared with subwatersheds with older households. Seasonal and event-based ACE concentration-discharge relationships revealed that the hydrological pathways delivering …

Model Development To Assess Groundwater Flooding And Levee Underseepage In New Orleans, Louisiana, Shuo Yang

LSU Master's Theses

Flooding is a major threat to New Orleans due to its geographic location and geologic condition. However, potential groundwater flooding is seldom studied and poorly understood even though groundwater level is expected high in the city. High groundwater level might result in groundwater flooding in low-lying areas. High uplift pore water pressures may cause strong underseepage and risk levee safety. The objective of this study is to assess the impacts of hydrogeology on groundwater flooding and evaluate potential underseepage-induced hazards along levees in New Orleans. In this study, a groundwater flow model development which involves stratigraphy modeling, groundwater flow model …

The Overexploitation Of The Valle De Querétaro Aquifer And Its Impact In Small Peri-Urban Communities, Querétaro, México, Kelsey Kirkland

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The Valle de Querétaro Aquifer is the only viable local water source satisfying the domestic, agricultural, and industrial water needs of the Querétaro Valley. Severe depletion of the groundwater source has had significant consequences throughout the region, especially in the peri-urban communities of Santo Niño de Praga, Tlacote el Bajo, and La Palma. Historically, residents depended on aquifer-fed freshwater springs (known as Los Tajos) to meet their basic and productive needs. Spring production ceased between 10 and 15 ago and investigating the causes formed the basis of this research.

Analysis of available qualitative and quantitative data was used to identify …