The Sacramento Branch Presents
Understanding Surface Water/Groundwater Interactions: Lesson Learned from Scott Valley
Laura Foglia, Ph.D.
Adjunct Associate Professor, University of California Davis, Davis, California / Engineer with Larry Walker Associates, Davis, California
PRESENTATION:
California, facing extreme weather conditions as the climate warms, has been experiencing a cycle of drought and flood events. Many groundwater basins have faced major decreases in groundwater levels over the past decades, and in many basins the impact on interconnected surface water and groundwater dependent ecosystem has been significant. The recent drought has intensified the impacts associated with these declines. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) is the latest legislative effort introduced to promote maintaining groundwater resources management at local levels and support sustainable management of these resources. Understanding the interactions between surface water and groundwater is critical to assess one of the six undesirable results defined by SGMA: the impact on interconnected surface water.
Due to the lack of adequate monitoring networks to frequently record streamflow and shallow groundwater data, and complications associated with understanding the locations where streams are losing and gaining, assessing surface water and groundwater interaction is technically challenging. Groundwater pumping, even if only seasonal, may significantly impact groundwater-dependent ecosystems through increased streamflow depletion, particularly in semi-arid and arid regions. Here we present the spatiotemporally distributed soil water budget model that we developed and then coupled with an analytical model for stream depletion from groundwater pumping to rapidly assess seasonal impacts of groundwater pumping on streamflow during critical low flow periods. We demonstrate the applicability of the tool for the Scott Valley in Northern California, where protected salmon depend on summer streamflow fed by cool groundwater. We developed a number of potential water management scenarios and demonstrated that increased recharge in the period immediately preceding the critical low streamflow season, and transfer of groundwater pumping away from the stream are potentially promising tools to address ecosystem concerns, albeit raising difficult infrastructure and water trading issues. Results are compared to the existing detailed numerical integrated hydrological model results and suggest that the coupled soil water mass balance—stream depletion function approach provides a viable tool for scenario development among stakeholders, to constructively inform the search for potential solutions, and to direct more detailed, complex site-specific feasibility studies. The tool also identifies important field monitoring efforts needed to improve the understanding and quantification of site-specific groundwater-stream interactions.
Laura Foglia, Ph.D. a,b , Thomas Harter, Ph.D. b , Gus Tolley, Ph.D. b
a Larry Walker Associates, Davis, CA
b University of California, Davis, CA
SPEAKER BIO:
Laura Foglia, Ph.D., is an adjunct associate professor at University of California Davis, and a consultant senior engineer with Larry Walker Associates in Davis, California. She holds a Master in Physics from University of Milan, Italy, and a PhD in Environmental Engineering from ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Her research focuses on understanding integrated groundwater/surface water systems at local and macro-scale. Her emphasis is on model calibration and uncertainty analysis applied to different watersheds and different water management problems, from ecohydrological problems to optimization of conjunctive use of surface water/groundwater She has been a research assistant at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, where she taught groundwater and vadose zone modelling courses, and short courses for other universities. At University of California, Davis, she developed a new class on “Inverse Problems” for students in the Civil and Environmental Engineering and Land, Air and Water Resources Departments.
SCHOLASTIC SPONSOR:
ABOUT: CALIFORNIA LABORATORY SERVICES (C.L.S. Laboratories, Inc.)
Founded in 1982, California Laboratory Services is a State certified small environmental laboratory committed to provide the environmental industry with the highest quality testing service. Our laboratory is located in Rancho Cordova, CA. Our laboratory performs work under State certification programs. We are certified in the State of California Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (#1233). Our laboratory performs organic, inorganic & bacteriological analyses of:Founded in 1982, California Laboratory Services is a State certified small environmental laboratory committed to provide the environmental industry with the highest quality testing service. Our laboratory is located in Rancho Cordova, CA. Our laboratory performs work under State certification programs. We are certified in the State of California Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (#1233). Our laboratory performs organic, inorganic & bacteriological analyses of:
- Drinking Water
- Solid waste
- Petroleum fuels
- Waste water
- Soil
- Sludge & Hazardous Waste
With facilities encompassing over 16,000 square feet of lab space, housing high-resolution instrumentation and highly trained chemists, we are positioned to offer your company a wide range of first class environmental analytical chemistry that satisfies State and Federal regulations such as:
- CCR Title 22 Drinking Water + CERCLA (Superfund) + NPDES Permits
- UST Sites + RCRA + EPA
ANNOUNCING SCHOLASTIC SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES:
All Proceeds to Benefit Science Students
The GRA Sacramento Branch has a history of supporting university-level science students. Our Scholastic Sponsorship Program is an opportunity to publicize your business while contributing toward a good cause. The cost is minimal; if interested, please contact Michael Bombard at (916) 865-5301 or Michael.Bombard@ghd.com.
AGENDA:
Social Hour - 5:30-6:30 p.m.
Announcements & Dinner - 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Presentation - 7:30-8:30 p.m.
Usual great food, including two meat entrées, salad, rice, potatoes, vegetable and iced tea. A no-host beer and wine bar will be available.
MEETING COSTS AND RSVP:
EARLY BIRD MEETING COSTS
Members: $27.00
Non-Members: $32.00
Students: $10.00
Cancellations must be made by Noon on Monday, October 7th.
If you register after Noon on Monday, October 7th, or walk-in, a $3.00 surcharge will be added to the meeting cost.
If you have questions about the meeting, please call Rodney Fricke at 916-407-8539 or email him at rodneyafricke@gmail.com. For questions about Sacramento Branch in general, including submittal of your ideas and/or desires for future presentations, please call Linda Bond at (530) 757-1500 or email her at Linda.Bond@water.ca.gov.
UPCOMING MEETINGS & EVENTS:
- November 13, 2019: Kent Parrish, Wood, Abandoned Mine Lands: What are they? How big of an issue? What’s the big deal?
- December 11, 2019: Annual Joint GRA-AEG Holiday Meeting – 2019 NGWA McEllhiney Lecture Gary L. Hix, Drilling Disasters and What Can We Learn