Modern Groundwater Exploration

Discovering New Water Resources in Consolidated Rocks Using Innovative Hydrogeologic Concepts, Exploration, Drilling, Aquifer Testing and Management Methods

Robert A. Bisson, Jay H. Lehr

• Publisher: Wiley-Interscience
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9780471064602
• eBook ISBN:
  9781119318316
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Organic Chemistry

New exploration tools and techniques for a breakthrough paradigm of regional groundwater occurrence
Fresh water is undoubtedly our most precious resource aside from the air we breathe, and the only commodity whose cost has steadily risen over time. At the same time, our understanding of the origins, pathways, and recharge mechanisms of the earth's most valuable "economic" mineral-groundwater-remains in the nineteenth century. It is ironic that this scientific anachronism is contributing to a global shortage of available fresh water supplies while oil, gas, and mineral discoveries have proliferated, vastly increasing the world's energy, precious metals, and industrial mineral reserves.
Modern Groundwater Exploration details applications and results of proven twenty-first- century technologies and geological concepts adapted from the oil, gas, and mineral exploration industries for evaluating, developing, and managing previously undiscovered, massive, sustainable groundwater resources. Unprecedented in both its scope and authority, this timely book presents:
* A new groundwater paradigm, coined Megawatershed, which accurately and comprehensively describes the earth's natural complex groundwater systems
* Innovative exploration, drilling, and testing technologies that make major new ground-water sources more locatable and cost-effective to produce than ever before
* Actual case studies in which megawatershed methods have identified vast quantities of new water and brought new hope to previously arid and desperately water-short locales
* Chapters by former OECD DAC chairman Alexander R. Love, geopolitical analyst Dr. Ewan Anderson, and former director of the Trinidad and Tobago Water Resources Agency Dr. Utam Maharaj on the tremendous global implications of the megawater-shed paradigm. These experts explore the many beneficial applications of megawater-shed development, from macroeconomics to development of small island developing state (SIDS), and from critical environmental issues to water conflict resolution and the potential for a second "green revolution"
The world's need for clean, dependable water is more urgent-and addressable-than ever before. Let Modern Groundwater Exploration introduce you to the authors' revolutionary megawatershed paradigm, along with the latest concepts and technologies for accessing vast reservoirs of groundwater-still today's safest, cleanest, and most plentiful water resource.

1
A Historical Perspective

In humid regions, primitive humans paid little attention to water. It was always present and, like air, was taken as a matter of course. However, in semiarid and arid regions, the occurrence of water controlled the activities of humans. Villages were originally built on perennial streams or around water holes. Our early movements consisted chiefly of migrations to perennial water in the dry season and ventures into new pastures or hunting grounds in the wet season.

Primitive humans learned to dig for water, possibly by observing the actions of wild horses and wolves in search of water. As soon as we learned to domesticate and rear cattle and sheep, the water well became the most important possession.

The Bible described many incidents illustrating the importance of groundwater supplies to the tribes of Israel. Abraham and Isaac were renowned for their success at constructing wells. The Father of Modern Hydrology, O.E. Meinzer once said that the twenty-sixth chapter of Genesis read like a water-supply paper. Most people recall from the Old Testament how the Jews suffered for want of water in their 40 years of wandering in the deserts. To quell a near revolt by his people, Moses smote a rock with his rod and a fountain of water burst forth.

The ancient Greeks in the early seventh century BC told the story of Tantalus, Zeus' favorite mortal son who stole the ambrosia and nectar from the gods that gave the gods endless lives. Tantalus tried to share the heavenly food with mortals to give humans immortality. Zeus punished Tantalus by hurling him to Tartarus, a prison of darkness where Tantalus currently stands, trapped in the pool of water that is chin-height. He cannot drink it, though, for anytime he lowers his mouth to take a drink, the water recedes. The ancient Greeks knew the value of water, for Tantalus was sentenced to an eternal life of thirst, the most terrible punishment available. Hence, the word, tantalize.

The Romans depended on many shallow wells and springs before they built their first aqueduct in 312 BC. The soil was so rich in springs and underground streams that wells could be sunk successfully at any point, and the average depth necessary was only about 5 m. Such wells were common from the earliest period, of the Roman Empire Excavations in the Roman forum have uncovered more than 30 wells dating back to the Republic.

The drilling rather than digging of artesian wells in France and Italy began in the twelfth century and created considerable popular and scientific interest on the occurrence of underground water. The art of drilling and casing wells was actually invented, perfected, and extensively practiced by the ancient Chinese. They used bamboo poles and patience to penetrate hundreds of feet. Wells were started by the grandfather and completed by the grandson.

The most extraordinary works of ancient humans for collecting groundwater are the qanats and karezes of the Persians and Afghanies. The qanats and karezes are tunnels that connect the bottoms of shafts, which were dug by humans working as moles over long periods of time and are conspicuous over all the high central valleys of Iran. Thirty six of these tunnels supplied Teheran and the highly cultivated tributary agricultural area.

In ancient times, springs were considered the miraculous gifts of the gods; they wrought miracles and consequently were places where temples were built. These superstitions continue today with those who optimistically overestimate the therapeutic value of medicinal springs.

Prior to the latter part of the seventeenth century, it was generally assumed that the water discharged by the springs could not be derived from the rain, first because the rainfall was believed to be inadequate in quantity and second, because the Earth was believed to be too impervious to permit penetration of the rain water far below the surface. With these two erroneous postulates lightly assumed, the philosophers devoted their thought to devising ingenuous hypotheses to account in some other way for the spring and stream water.

Two main hypotheses were developed: one to the effect that sea water is conducted through subterranean channels below the mountains and is then purified and raised to the springs and the other to the effect that in the cold dark cavern under the mountains, the subterranean atmosphere and perhaps the Earth itself are condensed into the moisture. The sea water hypothesis gave rise to subsidiary ideas to explain how the sea water is freed from its salt and how it is elevated to the altitude of the springs. The removal of the salt was ascribed to processes of either naturally occurring distillation or filtration.

Beginning with the middle of the sixteenth until the close of the seventeenth century, numerous publications appeared that contained discussions of groundwater, but the two ancient or classic Greek hypotheses chiefly occupied the field, although an infiltration theory was explained in 1580 by Bernard Palissy. In the later part of the seventeenth century, Perrault, Mariotte, and Halley abandoned the theories of the past and actively undertook experimental work to determine the source and movements of groundwater, and thus was born the science of groundwater. Perrault made rainfall measurements during three years and roughly estimated the area of the drainage basin of the Seine River above a point in Burgundy and of the runoff from this same basin. He computed that the quantity of water that fell on the basin as rain or snow was about six times the quantity discharged by the river. Crude as his work was, he definitely demonstrated the fallacy of the old assumption of the inadequacy of the rainfall to account for the discharge of springs and streams.

Mariotte computed the discharge of the Seine at Paris by measuring its width, depth, and velocity at approximately its mean stage and by doing so verified Perrault's results. About the same time, Halley made crude tests of evaporation and demonstrated that the evaporation from the sea is sufficient to account for all the water supplied to the springs and streams, thus removing the need for any other mysterious subterranean channel to conduct the water from the ocean to the springs.

Centuries were required to free scientists from superstition and wild theories handed down from earlier generations regarding the unseen subsurface water. To a certain extent, we still live at a time when great misunderstanding if not superstition exist with regard to the occurrence and movement of groundwater. The elementary principle that gravity controls motions of water underground as well as at the surface is still not appreciated by all engaged in the development of the world's vast groundwater supplies.

Many people still believe that the magical forked witch stick is able to point to underground water streams and will actually twist in the hands of the operator in its endeavor to do so.

These popular superstitions are examples of the ability to believe without the foundation of facts, and this peculiar ability exists in the minds of both educated and uneducated men and women. Inasmuch as the movements of underground water cannot be observed at the surface, they have been subject to wild speculation. Even an American judge in a court case once ruled that “percolating water moves in a mysterious manner in courses unknown and unknowable.”

Little by little in the last decades of the twentieth century, groundwater hydrologists dragged the water supply fraternity and the public at large kicking and screaming into a twenty-first century. Now groundwater resources are appropriately valued as often the best hope for enabling society and commerce to move forward unhindered by water shortages. Forty-seven percent of the U.S. population now depends on groundwater for its drinking water. In the Asia-Pacific region, 32% of the population is groundwater dependent; in Europe, 75%; in Latin America, 29% and in Australia, 15%.

The authors of this book played their role of ardent enthusiastic scientists during this period battling ever-present opposition to belief that significant quantities of groundwater supply could be sustained. Although we approached success in our efforts, it was still a small victory as our intent has been to reveal to the world the vast quantities of groundwater yet hidden deep within the Earth, often beneath arid lands. Thus far, there has been little confidence in our conceptual model or paradigm.

We have long believed that a planet whose surface is covered by water should not be facing water shortages. Admittedly, 97% of the Earth's water is too salty for humans and agriculture, and glaciers and ice caps put another significant portion out of reach. But we have long believed that a significant portion thought to be out of reach under the ground is not.

Energy-intensive desalting of seawater is currently too expensive except in wealthy but dry areas near seacoasts. Our fresh surface water has been allocated in most of the developed world, with Canada being a rare exception.

Although humans have learned well over the past century to conserve water in such that water use per person has actually declined, the addition of the final two billion people on the planet in the next 40 years before its population stabilizes (in accordance with most sound demographic projections) will require considerable additional water supplies. If we fail to develop additional water supplies, international strife will remain. Half of our continental land lies within river basins shared by more than one country. Multinational water claims have not and likely will not provoke war, but local and regional conflicts have occurred over inequitable allocation and use of water resources. International diplomacy commonly encourages opposing countries to cooperate, but not always before lives are lost. Most recently, apartheid battles in South Africa in 1990, Iranian and Iraqi disputes in 1991, and intrastate conflicts in India in the mid 1990s cost thousands of lives.

There has been an explosive development of groundwater in several major deserts of the world in the last half of the twentieth century. Preliminary results of activity in the Sahara and throughout the Arabian Peninsula substantiate the occurrence of vast amounts of water stored beneath desert lands. This development is due to efforts of groundwater geologists and engineers, well construction crews, and political leaders who had the courage to launch the investigations against accepted water resources paradigms.

Several factors make water development programs in arid regions feasible:

1. The deserts offer uncrowded space
2. Favorable climate for nearly year-round crop growth
3. Large areas of reasonably good soils and food-fiber requirements for persons in mineral and petroleum resource industries in desert areas.

Throughout most of the world, aquifers have not been regarded as true water resource reservoirs. Rather, they are simply viewed as holding tanks for annual contributions of what is unfortunately thought of as safe yield. The annual increment of groundwater is skimmed off the top when the basin below is depleted in any significant way. But in fact, the surface-water reservoir that remains full is obviously as poorly managed as that which remains empty; so too is the groundwater reservoir poorly managed when it is not allowed to rise and fall in contrast to the vagaries of the natural cycle and the demands of the human population.

Good water management is the optimum manipulation of the available water resource to serve the greatest common good. It includes the coordination of both the natural aspects of the hydraulic cycle and every artificial operation that can be performed upon it, save, in most cases, the drastically expensive and uneconomic interbasin transfer of surface water.

The concept of the hydrologic cycle has become so generally accepted that it is difficult to appreciate the long history that lies back of its development and demonstration, from the dawn of history until comparatively recent times, barely a quarter of a century ago. The central concept in the science of hydrology is the hydrologic cycle, a convenient term to denote the circulation of the water from the sea, through the atmosphere, to the land and thence with numerous delays back to the sea by overland and underground routes and in part through re-evaporation and transpiration from vegetation, lakes, and streams. It involves the measurement of the quantities and rates of movement of water at all times and at every stage of its course through multiple reservoirs, from a height of 15 km above the ground to a depth of some 5 km beneath it. The reservoirs include atmospheric moisture, oceans, rivers, lakes, icecaps, soil, and groundwater. The transport mechanism from one physical state or aquifier to another is either gravity or solar energy over periods that range from hours to thousands of years.

The pioneer of intensive groundwater investigations was Germany's Adolph Theim who introduced field methods for making tests of the flow of groundwater and applied the laws of flow in developing water supplies. Under his influence, Germany became the leading country in supplying its cities with groundwater, and it still derives over 80% of its needs from wells.

Because we can see surface waters and because such tremendous amounts of money have been spent in building visible dams, levees, artificial reservoirs, aqueducts, and irrigation canals involving surface water, it is openly natural that we tend to think of that water as the major source of the world's needs. Actually less than 3% of unfrozen fresh water available at any given moment on our planet Earth occurs in streams and lakes. The other more than 97%, estimated at eight trillion acre-feet, is underground.

The total amount of water on our planet has almost certainly not changed since geological times. Water can be polluted, abused, and misused, but it is neither created nor destroyed; it only migrates.

Groundwater is tracked by remote sensing and tracer techniques, but the water movement is exceedingly difficult to follow. It is known that groundwater migrates slowly. Sometimes groundwater moves only a few millimeters a day, although occasionally it is a few meters per day. Near the water table, the average cycling time of water may be a year or less, whereas in deep aquifers, it may be as long as thousands of years. It is easier to measure water tables. Through test wells and controlled pumping, it is not difficult to measure the recharge rate and flow behavior around a particular site. The difficulty comes in sensing movement in the aquifer as a whole. Water can be stored in the pores of rocks, but it can also be stored in cracks and fractures, and sometimes these fissures can provide conduits to allow water to travel quickly and over great distances.

No one knows how many unexplored and unexploited aquifers exist, but the amount of water stored in them is thought to be considerable. This is the focus of this book, to help exploration geologists around the globe to uncover vast stores of water yet undiscovered. Water exploration companies have not yet made a major impact on the stock markets of developed countries, but they would not be a bad bet for adventurous investors.

Water exploration must tie itself to the many great advances made by the petroleum industry, which long ago tied itself to computer technology. The petroleum industries need for processing power is insatiable, and it has resulted in many computer technology advances. Today we stand on the launching pad to a journey into high technology groundwater location and development whose foundation has been laid for us through advances in petroleum and other mineral explorations. The oil industry itself has been a driving force in the computer industry where Texas Instruments began as a company in 1930 known as Geophysical Service. Seismic imaging now available for groundwater studies led to the development of computer programs to assess sound waves generated in rock to infer the nature and location of rock layers capable of trapping oil. From initial two-dimensional images, computers ultimately were taught to process gigabytes of data that would result in three-dimensional images.

In 1985,...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: A Historical Perspective
• Chapter 2: Megawatersheds—A New Paradigm
• Chapter 3: Case Study—Northwest Somalia 1984–1986
• Chapter 4: Sudan Case Studies and Model
• Chapter 5: Case Study—Tobago, West Indies 1999–2000
• Chapter 6: Case Study—Trinidad, West Indies 2000–2002
• Chapter 7: Global Implications of a Hydrogeological Paradigm Shift
• Index
• End User License Agreement