Groundwater II - Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR)

American Water Resources Association
2013 ANNUAL WATER RESOURCES CONFERENCE
November 4‐7, 2013
Portland, OR
Wednesday, Nov. 6
8:30 AM – 10:00 AM
SESSION 46: Groundwater II. Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR)
A Desktop Suitability Assessment of Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) in Washington State ‐ Maria
Gibson, Oregon State University, Eugene, OR (co‐author: M. E. Campana)
In Washington, the Cascade Range snowpack is the State's largest natural freshwater reservoir. As
climate deviates from current conditions, and type and timing of precipitation change, opportunities to
capture and store surplus runoff for later use will increase. Since surface storage methods have a
number of drawbacks ‐ cost, environmental issues, land availability, and evaporative losses, to name a
few ‐ alternative storage methods are preferable. Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) is an underground
storage option used to supplement freshwater reserves. With the ability to capture and inject water
underground during high flow periods for later use, ASR is a viable option to mitigate climatic changes
and augment Washington's freshwater supply. To estimate ASR suitability, the assessment of factors
such as infrastructure considerations, aquifer characteristics, and regulatory requirements offers insight
into the potential for statewide ASR expansion before conducting expensive on‐site investigations. To
evaluate ASR feasibility throughout Washington, a desktop suitability assessment, using a modified ASR
metric and a site suitability assessment, was applied to over 280 locations within Washington's 62 Water
Resource Inventory Areas (WRIA). The modified ASR metric, which is a ratio of the estimated desired
volumetric injection rate to the rate at which an aquifer can accept the injected water, indicates 24%
and 29% of sites are marginally suitable and suitable for ASR, respectively, thereby adding a combined
potential storage volume of at least 85,000 acre‐feet per year to Washington's supply. Additionally, of
this volume, about 50,000 acre‐feet per year of potential storage was realized for WRIAs on the east
side of the Cascades, which satisfies approximately 17% of predicted 2030 municipal and industrial
consumptive use estimates. The site suitability assessment, which integrates regulatory, hydrogeologic,
and infrastructure factors to produce a percentage of ideal conditions suitable for ASR, indicates 51% of
locations have between 40% to 60% ideal conditions. Furthermore, 32% of marginally suitable and 36%
of suitable locations, based on the modified ASR metric, have greater than 60% ideal conditions suitable
for ASR. This suggests great potential for ASR developments exist in Washington and could aid in
satisfying current demand and augmenting future water storage needs. Because of the limited data
requirements, the technique can be used elsewhere to provide rapid estimates of ASR suitability. It
should prove applicable to developed and developing regions alike.
Regulatory Disparities of ASR Projects in the US: An Old Fashion Showdown in Texas, the Outlaw of
Georgia, and the Big Cheese Gone South in Wisconsin ‐ Maria Gibson, Oregon State University, Eugene,
OR
Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) projects in the United States are federally regulated by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Underground Injection Control Program. Although all states
must enforce EPA standards, on a state level, policy on and regulation of ASR can extend beyond such
regulations. Therefore, legal implementation of these projects can differ greatly by state, and in some

instances, on a local level, due to interstate water governing districts. To best emphasize these
differences, case studies with respect to regulatory matters of ASR projects in Texas, Georgia, and
Wisconsin are presented.
Preliminary Evaluation of Aquifer Storage and Recovery, Columbia River Off‐Channel Aquifer Storage
Project – James Miller, GeoEngineers, Inc., Redmond, WA (co‐authors: G. Gregory, J. Covert)
The Washington State Department of Ecology is conducting a preliminary evaluation of the suitability of
aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) at a potential project site in Douglas County, near the northwestern
limits of the Columbia Plateau. If feasible, the project would utilize surface water from the Columbia
River for off‐channel storage in aquifers of the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG). The study area is
somewhat isolated topographically with relatively little local use of groundwater.
Investigation components have included installation of one test well and five monitoring wells, downhole
video and borehole geophysical logging, borehole rock analyses by X‐ray fluorescence (XRF),
groundwater chemical analyses, and aquifer testing and analysis. Subsurface explorations have
encountered a layered aquifer system consisting of four major hydrostratigraphic units. These include,
from youngest to oldest: (1) Wanapum Basalt, (2) Vantage Interbed, (3) Grande Ronde Basalt, and (4)
pre‐Miocene basement rocks. The thicknesses of the units that overlie the basement rocks generally
increase toward the south. The Vantage Interbed in the study area is relatively thick and includes
substantial amounts of clay. The Vantage represents a very effective aquitard, with piezometric water
levels in the Grande Ronde Basalt generally about 25 feet lower than water levels in the overlying
Wanapum Basalt. Natural recharge to the Grande Ronde is severely limited by the semi‐arid climate of
the study area, combined with relative topographic isolation and the presence of the Vantage aquitard.
The Grande Ronde was selected for aquifer testing because of its greater depth and its relative isolation
from the shallower Wanapum unit. A test well was competed as an open‐hole boring through the entire
thickness of the Grande Ronde Basalt (uncased section extending between the depths of 250 feet and
400 feet). Three monitoring wells were completed within the Grande Ronde aquifer at varying distances
to the test well. One monitoring well was completed in the overlying Wanapum aquifer at the test well
site. Aquifer testing included a step‐rate pumping test and a 72‐hour pumping test at a constant rate of
250 gpm. The testing resulted in immediate piezometric responses in the Grande Ronde observation
well located relatively close to the pumping well. However, no measurable drawdown was recorded for
monitoring points within the Wanapum Basalt, or for observation wells in the Grande Ronde Basalt that
were located at distance from the test well. Analysis of the aquifer testing data indicates a low‐tomoderate
transmissivity and a relatively high storativity for the Grande Ronde unit in the vicinity of the
test well. Interpretation of the testing data and groundwater gradients suggests that the Grande Ronde
aquifer in the study area is compartmentalized with an unusually high storativity for a confined aquifer.
Based on information obtained to date, the potential for ASR appears promising at this site, and further
evaluation of project feasibility is warranted.
Webster Well 1 Aquifer Storage and Recovery ‐ Amy Ewing, Daniel B. Stephens & Associates, Inc.,
Albuquerque , NM (co‐authors: J. M. Stomp III, K. Yuhas, A. Friedt )
The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (Water Authority) is conducting an aquifer
storage and recovery (ASR) project using existing production wells and treated San Juan‐Chama water
diverted from the Rio Grande. The purpose of the project is to recharge the Santa Fe Group aquifer
system of the Middle Rio Grande Basin and to recover the water for later use.

Groundwater from Webster Well 1 has an arsenic concentration well above the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency National Primary Drinking Water Regulation maximum contaminant level, and the
well is currently offline. The Water Authority is implementing the Webster Well 1 recharge
demonstration project to determine whether ASR project implementation will allow wells with high
arsenic concentrations to be brought back online. Retrofits at Webster Well 1 are complete, and a brief
water quality test was conducted in the spring of 2013. A longer demonstration project is being planned
to begin in late 2013.
The project includes initial and periodic water quality sampling, including daily arsenic sampling during
extraction. This presentation discusses the effectiveness, based on the injection test project results, of
using existing infrastructure for ASR in the Albuquerque basin.