Invited Luncheon Speaker - March 3, 2009- Sue Langer and Chris A. Sanocki - USGS - Minnesota Water Science Center

SYNOPTIC STUDY OF GROUND-WATER LEVEL CHANGES IN MAJOR AQUIFERS IN THE TWIN CITIES METROPOLITAN AREA

 Abstract:
 
The Twin Cities Metropolitan Area (TCMA) is composed of seven counties encompassing an area of 2,985 mi2. The TCMA is underlain by the Twin Cities Artesian Basin, an oval-shaped, northeast-trending structural basin centered beneath Minneapolis and St. Paul, which is filled with a sequence of up to 1,100 ft of sedimentary strata ranging in age from Precambrian to Holocene (Adolphson and others, 1981). These strata contain five aquifers, two of which, the Prairie du Chien-Jordan and Mt. Simon-Hinckley, provided 75 and 7 percent, respectively, of the ground water withdrawn in 1990 in the TCMA (Metropolitan Council, 1992).

As a consequence of increasing ground-water withdrawals, water levels in the principal aquifers beneath the TCMA have been declining since the onset of development in the 1880's (Horn, 1983). With continued population growth and further development of suburban communities in the TCMA, ground-water withdrawals from the Prairie du Chien-Jordan, Franconia-Ironton-Galesville, and Mt. Simon-Hinckley aquifers are expected to increase considerably by 2010 (Metropolitan Council, 1992; Minnesota Office of the State Demographer, written communication, 1995). It has been 16 years since the last synoptic measurement of water-levels in aquifers that supply much of the water to the TCMA (Andrews and others, 1995; Schoenberg 1984) and water-level measurements are critical information used by state and local water planners to evaluate water-supply issues for the TCMA.

The goal of this proposed study is to obtain ground-water levels in 3 major TCMA aquifers (Prairie du Chein-Jordan, Franconia-Ironton-Galesville and Mt. Simon-Hinckley), in the winter and summer of 2008.  All water-levels measured in the winter and summer will be compared to water-levels from earlier investigations (Andrews and others, 1995).  The outcome of this project is an improved understanding of the TCMA aquifers response to increased water withdrawals.

*Project conducted in cooperation with the Metropolitan Council, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

Bio
 
Chris Sanocki is the Project Chief of this study. Chris is a Geographer and Geographic Information Specialist with the USGS Water Science Center in Mounds View, Minnesota.    

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