Hydrogeology 101

Was everyone having a good time?

Any good shows so far today?

Any good talks. Some good ones.

I can strive for
a low level here.

[LAUGHTER] I want to make sure.

This is Hydrogeology 101.

If you're here for the pumps,
I think that's next door.

We'll wait for a
few more people to

get seated here and
we'll get started,

and I'll give the code for

the CU credits after
we're done here.

If I give it to you now,
everyone gets up and leaves.

[BACKGROUND]

You can come on in,

and have a seat. It's okay.

Get all the students
up here in the front,

that's good. She set an example.

They're short, so I'll
let them sit there.

Especially Nancy here,
she's like 4'1".

We'll go and get started here.

I'm Dr. Richard Laton.

I'm an associate professor of

hydrogeology at California
State University, Fullerton.

For those of you who are not
from the California area,

that's Cal State Disneyland.

We are about 3-4 miles
away from Disneyland.

What makes Cal State Fullerton
even more connected to

Disneyland is they both
opened in the same year,

and our campus is a
really ugly campus.

Apologies, sorry students,

but it's a really
ugly ass campus,

and it's big boxes.

The rumor has it that
when Disneyland came in,

they unpacked it,
we got the boxes.

Since the state of
California is broke,

it makes a lot of sense

because they've
never been wealthy.

Anyway, we're going
to talk about

Hydrogeology 101 today,

and I'm going to take you
through the water cycle.

Even give you a little
math, it's okay.

Give you a little history

about me and how I got
into this business,

I have an oceanography
degree from St.

Cloud State, Minnesota.

If you know where
Minnesota is at, and St.

Cloud is in the
middle of that state,

country, it's almost
its own country.

You cannot get further from

an ocean than St.
Cloud, Minnesota.

When I went to apply
for graduate school,

nobody would take me, and

my GPA might have
sucked, so that's okay.

But somehow I found a group at

Western Michigan University that

took me in because I had some
pretty good math skills.

But what's more interesting
and why you guys should

pay attention here is
they had a drilling rig,

and they learned that I

drove fork truck
one summer for 3M.

I was an intern at 3M,

and whatnot, so I
drove fork truck.

I went out with them
one day when they were

drilling environmental
monitoring wells for a thesis,

and I lifted the sands
of cement around,

and the sand and
grout and everything.

By the end of the day,

the head professor walks
up to me and goes,

"Hey, I heard you
drove fork truck.

You're our driller for
the next seven years."

In my graduate career,
I put in nearly

1,000 wells as deep
as 2-300 feet,

most of them shallow,
but I was their driller.

How did I learn to do that?

From a fork truck
driving skill set,

I went out and talked
to every contractor

I could find and
asked them, teach me.

I actually got my hands dirty.

When I got my doctorate, I

actually was in the
drilling business.

I've actually done
a lot of that.

I'm going to try to
put into hydrogeology

here the context for which
it makes sense to everybody.

The objective today is get

a better understanding of

groundwater and
groundwater principles.

Like I said, we'll throw in

a little bit of math in there,

nothing too serious, but

I have to do that,
I'm a professor.

We're going to go through

some different things
associated with it.

Hopefully today, you're going

to get some basic definitions,

so we all have the same
verbiage to deal with.

We're going to talk about
the hydrologic cycle

because groundwater
is part of it,

despite the fact that

our elementary schools
don't teach that,

which really pisses me
off that in the K-12,

groundwater is a
forgotten subject,

and yet, it's what we

usually get most of our
drinking water from.

But we're talking about
aquifers and clear up

some mysteries about
confined aquifers

and semi-confined aquifers.

We're talking about
some water budgets,

some wells, and contamination.

Then I'll also show you
some of the tools that

we do to investigate things.

Some definitions, so we're
all on the same page.

We're the only planet
with liquid water.

Pretty important. The
hydrologic cycle. What is it?

We get evaporation,
we get condensation,

we get precipitation,

and once it hits the ground,

you get either run-off
or it can infiltrate in.

The stuff that infiltrates in
is what's important to us,

because that's what
groundwater ends up being.

Now where along
that cycle happens,

a lot of different
things can take place.

Where precipitation
happens, and weather,

and we're going to
talk about some of

the weather issues
associated with it.

Hydrology. Why would we
care about hydrology?

Hydrology to me is the
study of surface water.

Hydrogeology is that water
that resides in the dirt,

but hydrology is connected to

that dirt for which the
groundwater is connected.

There's a connection
there, and we

got to talk about that,

because that's certainly
something that's

a hot issue in a lot of states.

How can I pump over here
and not impact this?

I'm going to tell you
some stories about how

Orange County, California,

deals with it. Unsaturated zone.

That's that zone of

air and water that resides
above the aquifer.

There's some water in there,

but primarily, it's
not 100% saturated.

We're going to show
you some slides

and we'll talk about that
a little bit further.

The water table,
we'll define it.

We'll define an unconfined

aquifer and a confined aquifer,

then I'll have to throw
Darcy's law on there,

and we'll talk about a
couple of other things.

Distribution of water on Earth.

Most of the water,
as everyone knows,

resides in the oceans.
Is it potable?

No. Most of the water on
Earth is not drinkable as is.

That narrows our little piece of

the pie that we're all
interested in to pretty small.

Fresh water is about 3% of
the total water on Earth.

Groundwater makes up a
large portion of that.

I like this little slide here,

because right there is
all the fresh water

on Earth compared to
the volume of Earth.

Groundwater, you can't see it,

but it's a little tiny dot down

here in one county in Arkansas.

That's the potable water source

we have for the whole world.

It's pretty small, so it's
something precious to us.

It doesn't mean we can't
take that salt water,

and desalinate it, and do
some other things to it.

People are doing
that, they have to.

Can't keep raising
the population

and keep your pie the same size,

and force everyone to live.

What is the hydrologic cycle?

There again, we have

open surface waters
where water evaporates.

We have plants that transpire
and sweat like we do.

Every time you
sweat, you're taking

liquid and you turn
it into a gas phase,

smell a little bit,
but it's okay.

That goes up in the atmosphere.

Water evaporates as pure H_2O.

When it evaporates, if there's
any contaminants in it,

be it salt or any pollutant,
that's left behind.

When water evaporates, it
only evaporates as pure H_2O.

That's why we distill water.

Once it gets to the air,

it cools down and condenses
and at some point in time,

the weather system floats over,

it condenses and it
precipitates out.

Now, precipitate
out as snow, rain,

sleet, whatever. It doesn't
really matter to us.

At that point in time,

we can have infiltration
going into the ground

and moving through as groundwater
or we can have runoff.

Certainly, runoff has
some opportunities

for groundwater recharge,

but we're not going
to talk about that.

One of the things I want
to bring up though,

which I think is going to be

a bigger player as
we move forward,

is what I call the
urban water cycle.

The county that I live in
has four million people.

We recycle 100 million gallons

of wastewater every single day

back into our drinking
water supply,

100 million gallons
of water that we

treat and put back
into the ground.

All of the drinking water we

have in our county
is groundwater.

We pull it out with
pumps and wells,

but it's all recycled water.

We're 100% sustainable
in a desert.

What's going to happen is
we're going to start seeing

people start using their
water for whatever purpose,

having that go
back in the ground

and then we're going to
pull it back out is usable.

Now we have to treat it.

That's going to
happen more and more.

One of the issues that came up

was someone was talking
about Minnesota.

Anybody here from Minnesota?

Good. We can make fun of them.

It's Minnesota, I got
to make fun of them.

The land of 10,000 lakes.

What's their problem? They're
running out of groundwater.

The land of 10,000 lakes,

how can you run out
of groundwater?

Every one of those lakes is

tied to the groundwater system.

How can you be running
out of groundwater?

What's their water cycle?

They pump it up, they use it,

they put it in the Mississippi
River and give it to Iowa.

Anybody from Iowa? I can

make a lot of fun of Midwest.
This works out well.

They just give the
water to Iowa.

Well, they already
paid to pump it.

They already used it,

paid to treat it,

and then give it to Iowa.

Why in the hell
would you do that?

Just put it back on the
ground in Minnesota and keep

it and that's something they're
going to have to look at.

Rather than letting
that water all go

down the rivers to the ocean,

we're going to actually

start short-circuiting
that system

because it's something
we're going to have to do.

It's more sustainable.

We're already paying to
treat that wastewater,

why not reuse it again?

You can do this on a
private property with

a single well as well

as everything else because
what we've been doing.

You have your septic tank,
goes to leach field.

Where do you think
that water is going?

Right back to your well.
You pull it back up.

Now, it's been filtered and

cleaned by the time
it gets back there,

but it's the same water.

It's like my
eight-year-old daughter.

She went up to some friends we

were on vacation last
week and she goes,

you know that water you're
drinking was dinosaur pee.

[LAUGHTER] All water
on Earth is recycled.

Just here's another
nice little picture

I like from the USGS,

talking about the water cycle.

It gives a few other
terms in there.

Nothing to be too worried about.

Certainly, there's storage, but

groundwater is the one
we're worried about.

There again, when you pull

it out and use it
and put it back in,

you're just keeping
the system going.

Why give it to the ocean?

Meteorology. Why would
I talk about that?

Well, remember in
our water cycle,

it's first step. We have
to talk about climate.

Lots of things out there
with climate change,

global warming,
all these things.

Is it true or not?
I know my audience.

I'm not going to sit here
and say global warming.

Climates changed though.

Twelve thousand years ago,

Chicago had a one
mile thick sheet

of ice on top of it. Mile thick.

Is it there today? Anybody
been in Chicago lately?

January, it feels like it,

but it's still not a mile thick.

That was 12,500 years ago.

Were there are a lot of
cars driving around,

coal fire power plants?

No. Climates change.
They warm up.

Now, what the human impact
is on that, I don't know.

There again, educate yourself

and get your own opinion,
but it does change.

It's going to change,
it has changed in

the past and will
change in the future.

Temperatures impact
groundwater resources.

Notice this big yellow areas in

the West and we don't

have a whole hell
of a lot of water.

Lots of water over here.

Other factors is location
and altitude and latitude,

but all of that precipitation

dictates what groundwater
resources we have.

If you don't have a
lot of precipitation,

you don't have a lot of
recharge and therefore,

you're limited in your
groundwater supply.

The other thing that's
important and I bring

this up mainly because
of the West Coast,

not so important for you guys,

is the rain shadow effect.

As I tell my students
is Pacific Ocean,

largest water body on
Earth, lots of evaporation.

What direction do the
weather systems usually go

in the United States
from West to East.

What happens?
Evaporation goes up,

the condensation happens, but
that cloud is really heavy.

It's got a lot of water in it.

It hits that first bump,
which in our case,

the San Bernardino
or San Gabriel,

but it would be the
Cascades or the Rockies.

Now, what happens is that
cloud can't get over the hill.

It precipitates
out, rains, snows,

lightens it slow until it

gets high enough,
they can float over.

We end up with this area on

the backside which
gets less rain.

You end up with a
desert-type environment.

The Mojave Desert would
be a great example.

But also Nebraska
in the Midwest,

through to the Rockies have
the rain shadow effects.

On the one side, they
get lots of rainfall,

very little on the other side.

Surface water. There again,

we can talk about it in
all different fashions,

from swamps to rivers
to oceans, aqueducts,

like we have in California,
nice pretty lakes,

but nonetheless, it's a way
for the water to move over.

Now, it's always
touching the ground.

It can be a gaining stream

or a losing stream.
What do I mean by that?

Certain locations along
that water pathway,

the water is actually
going into the ground.

It's losing. A hundred gallons

come in, it's only 50 go out.

Where does the 50
go? Into the ground.

Other places, that
water's coming in.

It's a gaining stream.

How do you know the difference
by looking at them?

Does that stream
flow year round?

Why is there water in that river

and it hasn't rained in months?

That's because groundwater is

discharging into that
creek or stream,

allowing it to keep flowing.

Where if you go to
the Mojave River,

it's a river with no water
because when it does rain,

water goes along it four ways,

but it's always going
on the ground because

the groundwater is about
900 feet below it.

In the Midwest, you don't have

to worry about that so much,

but us West Coast people do.

The way we study surface waters,

we look at what's
called a hydrograph,

which is really time
versus discharge.

Here, maybe a
rainstorm happened,

and we get a little bit more
water in the river and down,

it gets dry for a while.

You can look at
things over time.

What happens is water is going

down and we get this big peak

because the rainfall happened,

then over time, it dissipates.

Well, if you can imagine when

water hits certain
parts of the watershed,

it takes a while for it
to get to the river,

and so that tail gets drawn out.

Now, from planners
and engineers,

they're always trying to
figure out how to take

this peak and knock it

down because that peak is
what causes mass flooding.

In certain areas,
that's why we have

flat rooftops on big buildings.

They actually want to store

some of the water up there so it

doesn't hit all the storm sewers

or storm drains the same time,

because if all that water
went to storm drain,

you can't make a big
enough pipe for that flow.

In order to do that, they store

the water temporarily
and then try

and discharge it over time to
those surface water bodies.

Here's a nice illustration
showing a gain stream.

There, again, groundwater

is feeding that surface water,

but this could be a lake
or stream or river.

It doesn't have to
be just a stream.

But groundwater is
actually coming

into it and discharging
and flowing over.

Other times where the
river is actually

higher or the lake is higher

than the groundwater and
you see it going out.

What's interesting, what
I never thought of was,

this is great. This
is book stuff.

But the Mississippi River has

places along it where it's

gaining and places
where it's losing.

It doesn't always have to be the

same for every inch of it.

In fact, one of the
things I did for

my dissertation was look at

the Kalamazoo River in Michigan.

There, over a
stretch of 50 feet,

it switched to 100% where it was

100% gaining to 100% losing
over 100 foot stretch,

and did that at different
levels down the thing.

It can be really short-lived.

But nonetheless, it's
that interaction between

that surface water body and

the groundwater which we're
really talking about.

Let's talk about groundwater.

That's the water that's in
the soils or in the rock.

It's the stuff that sits in

between all these
fractures to these grains.

It's stuff that we can't see.

What I love about
groundwater and love about

teaching about is
you can't see it,

so I'm always right. You
can't prove me wrong.

Surface water, any monkey

can teach that stuff because
you can go and touch it.

You can't touch groundwater

unless you do something with it.

That's either go to a spring
or put a well in the ground.

What is it? It's
the water contained

in spaces within
soil and bedrock.

It's less than only 1%
of all water on earth,

but it's 40 times more
abundant than lakes

and streams. That's the key.

The groundwater, even
though it's minimal,

it's still so much bigger than

all that freshwater that

everyone thinks the
surface is great.

Our politicians can vote on

big river projects
because they can see it.

Tough to vote on
a big groundwater

project when you can't see it.

Some other terms, zone of

aeration or vadose zone
or unsaturated zone.

That's the zone from
what we walk on

down to some level which

I'm going to call
the water table.

At that point, everything is
100% saturated with water.

All the void spaces in
between the fractures and

the sand grains or

clay or wherever else,
it has water in it.

Above that water table point
is what the vadose zone is,

and in here, we can have
water, but we also have air.

It's not 100% saturated.

It has to have
some water because

the water had to get from here

down. Those are some terms.

We have this is the vadose
zone or unsaturated zone,

down here, we have my aquifer,

and that's the saturated
zone because everything is

filled with 100% with water,

and the water table is the
boundary between them.

Now, what makes it complex is

this is what's called
an unconfined aquifer.

If I was to just dig a well,

there's no clay in
there, just sand,

go down my sandbox,

I hit the water table,

it's pretty easy to recognize.

It's also for those of you
who dig in sand and gravels,

it's right where the hole
starts collapsing on you.

Because from that point on,

the pressure is into my
hole, not out of it.

Above it, I can keep the hole

open just by digging a hole.

What is an aquifer?
Well, that's one.

This is a definition,

not necessarily the best one,

but it's a body of rock that's

sufficiently water
permeable to yield

economical significant
quantities of water to wells.

What the hell is economical?

I have no idea because

everybody's book is
going to be different.

To me, the aquifer is
that first body of water,

our first soil unit that's

100% saturated with water

regardless of it's
rock or whatnot.

The key is going to be this
unconfined and confined.

Now, you got cursed around here.

It's probably an unconfined
aquifer for the most part.

Is that right around here?

Does it go up and down with
barometric pressure changes?

When it rains, do you see

a response in your
wells, Tennessee?

I don't know. Anybody
here from Tennessee?

At least one person brave
enough to raise his hand?

That's good. An
unconfined or confined.

Unconfined, to me, means

that when water hits
the land surface,

it can go unimpeded

down to some depth
at that water table.

There's nothing to slow it
down, go straight there.

It also means when you have

a weather system come through

and the barometric
pressure changes,

I can actually see
the water level go

up and down based upon
that pressure system.

A confined aquifer is just that.

It has some rock or
clay unit that is

semi permeable or impermeable
sitting on top of it,

allowing pressure to
build up below that.

When it rains, the water
doesn't get there directly.

It has to go somewhere
else, and maybe

recharge from a distance away.

I'm going to show you a
picture here and hopefully we

can talk about that
a little more.

Well, here's another
one. You guys

don't have a lot of
faults around, do you?

Anybody from Tennessee?

Is there any faults around here?

Then there are some faults.

But they can be a
conduit for flow

or a barrier to flow, and
depending on what they are,

and some research
we've been doing

is some of the rock units,

we're finding the faults
are actually acting

as underground rivers as
much as I hate that term.

But here's a picture of
Orange County's aquifer.

Each of these brown things
represent confining units.

They are pressurizing or

allowing the water down
to be pressurized.

We have recharge up here

that feeds this
middle of this basin.

I'll talk a little more
about that in a second.

Confined aquifer, as we see

here has a confining unit on it,

has a rock unit that's

not allowing water to
perfectly move through it.

Now, one of the things I always

tell my students is,
everything is permeable.

Give enough time,

water will find its way into
anything and everything.

That time is the question.

When we think about
confining units,

we're looking at
something that takes

hundreds of thousands of
years to get through it.

It'll get through it. If we
put water on this table,

sooner or later, it
will get through it.

But how long will that take?

You can actually have some
perched systems as well

here where we have what's called

an aquiclude or aquitard,

just different schematics
for the same thing,

but you can have water
perched on top of it,

even though we have some
vadose zone down below it.

That's something
that happens in the

glacial areas quite a bit.

We were finding all
little thin silt units

that were holding five
or six feet of water.

You drill through that as dry.

For contaminant work,

that was really
horrible because you

drill that little one inch
layer pretty quickly.

All of a sudden, you
cross contaminate

something that wasn't
contaminated before.

Here's my little scheme.

Bunch of wells, here's
my vadose zone.

In here, I have
both water and air,

but then I have my water table.

This is an unconfined aquifer.

It goes up and down with

rainfall and barometric
pressure changes.

However, here I have a
rock unit or a barrier

to water moving across

it and down here, I
have another aquifer.

Now, where did this
water come from?

Probably from something
off to the hills somewhere

, but it's under pressure.

How do I get an artesian well?

Well, when I drill
into this thing,

if that water level comes above

the surface, we
call it artesian.

But where did that
pressure come from?

That elevation for which
the water will rise

here is equal to whatever

the recharge elevation
was at some distance

away. Does that make sense?

It's up in the hills,
that's why you

get water flowing nicely.

These are the wells
everyone likes to do.

One of the things I
want to point out

here is that the
water in this well,

which is screened down here,

is higher than the water in
this unconfined aquifer,

then the pressure is upward.

Water moves from high
pressure to low pressure.

This means that this
aquifer is pretty well

protected because its pressure
is out of it, not into it.

While this one, since
the water level is

lower in this one than this one,

the vertical gradient
is downward,

so this could be a
potential aquifer

for contamination transfer.

That's one reason why

if you're ever doing
environmental work,

we put in nested wells.

What I mean by nested wells,

two wells next to each other,

but screened at
different depths.

We want to know if the water is

moving downward or upward.

Some other big words that
we use in hydrogeology,

homogeneous, and heterogeneous.

Homogeneous means it's all
the same in all locations,

beach sand is nice that
for properties of geology.

Heterogeneous is going to be

the clay or glacial out-wash

has all kinds of stuff in it.

Then there's isotropic and

anisotropic we can
talk about later.

What's that mean
when I was drilling,

it meant porosity
and permeability.

What's the difference?

Porosity is that number we

give to the volume of
water a soil can hold.

Permeability is, can that
water move through that soil?

One of the things I always
tell my students is,

what's the porosity of
sand versus porosity of

clay? They're about the same.

They hold about the
same amount of water.

Somewhere around 35 to
45%, they can hold water.

But permeability, which is
what I really care about,

is how that water
moves through it.

Clay is pretty low.
Sand pretty good.

We get confused a lot of times

by talking about the porosity of

stuff because it may be
the same porosity value,

but the permeability
is what I really care

about because I need to
get that water to my well.

I want to know how it's
moving through that aquifer.

Permeability is probably
a better verbiage

to use when we're trying
to deal with water issues.

Which brings me up to
well sorted versus poorly

sorted or well graded
versus poorly graded.

Now, was a McLane
lecture in 2009.

I don't know if any
of you guys heard

me give my lecture on

soil classification.
Hopefully, you did.

Actually, hopefully,
everyone is out there doing

the unified soil
classification system

for the rocks and soils.

No one has a clue what I'm
talking about. That's good.

Glad I spent 56 weeks of my life

traveling the goddamn country

and no one paid attention to me.

Well, it's like the thousands

of students I have that
never listened to me either.

Anyway, grading and sorting,

we can relate this
back to permeability.

It goes to grain size.

What I'd like to start
with is grading.

Grading means when
I grade my class,

I have a bunch of
students get As,

some get Bs, Cs, Ds, and Fs.

A well-graded class,

according to the
university is I have

equal numbers of grades for
each of those categories.

Poorly graded would be is I

give my whole class
a bunch of Cs.

When we relate that to rocks,

poorly graded means I
have all one-grain size.

Well-graded means
I have some clay,

silt, sand, gravel,
and boulders.

Sorting is opposite of grading.

If something is well-graded,

by definition, it's
poorly sorted.

If it's poorly graded,
it's well-sorted.

Just think of it
flip-flopping them.

In this case, what is this one?

It's well sorted. Immediately,
it would be poorly graded.

This one's poorly sorted,
so it's well-graded?

You can see it a little bit
of every different size.

This one's all pretty uniform.

What's important
about that is from

a water production
standpoint or groundwater.

Which one is water going
to move through easily?

This one or this one?

It's going to do

this one because everything
is about the same,

it's like putting a bunch
of marbles together.

If I add bebes to my
marble collection,

it plugs up all
those poised places

for that water to go through,

so it makes it more difficult.

From a permeability standpoint,

this has a much higher
permeability than this guy does.

Just because you
find some gravel on

there, that may be great,

but if there's a lot of clays
and silts tied with it,

that can be plugging
up your aquifer.

The same thing can
be happening with

fractures and curse systems.

It's great that I have

all kinds of large
cracks down there.

But they're not connected
to another crack

that ultimately connects to

your well, what
good does it mean?

It's great for storing water
because porosity is high,

but the permeability
is low because there's

no connectivity between
cracks and fractures.

It's that permeability
or that connection

between all those it's really

important to us from the
groundwater standpoint.

Am I doing a time?
Plenty of time.

We'll skip this one. Some
of the ways we look at

this and another term
you're going to hear

a lot is hydraulic conductivity.

Hydraulic conductivity, you

think of that as permeability.

It's the rate for
which water can

move through the rock media.

We have some different
ways we can test that.

We can sieve them,

we have these little
fancy permeables

that you only see in colleges.

No one as right mind would
ever do it outside that.

But this gives some
idea of there again.

Shales are pretty low.

Cars limestone is pretty high.

It can be up to several
hundred feet per day.

Down in Texas, they
did a study and

they did some dies and they

dropped them in one
part of the aquifer,

shot out about mile and
a half within two days.

That's moving pretty quick.

Depending on what you're
in, it can change

that permeability
hydraulic connectivity.

But for the most part,

groundwater moves pretty slow.

It's not really a
fast-moving system.

Why? Because again, it's

on a tilt and I'm

going to show you that
here in a second,

it goes from high
pressure to low pressure

and it has a bunch of rocks
it's got to get through.

It's like you trying
to get through a

crowd at the airport.

The bigger the crowd,

the harder it is for
you to get through it.

No one there, you
fly right through.

Which, by the way, how many
people flew here this time?

Did you have to go through
the whole security thing?

Because they pulled me aside,
which I thought, shit.

I'm going to be strip-searched
for whatever reason.

But no, I kept my shoes on,

my jackets on, my
glasses, everything.

They said no, walk through.

My briefcase didn't have to take

laptop out. I was like, really?

This is like the old days.

Well, now, on the way home,

I'll get strip-searched,
of course,

because it all evens
out sooner or later.

Yeah. So we have one
law in groundwater.

Now, what is the
law? Law of gravity.

We've tested enough times,

we've dropped the
pencil it falls down.

This is our one law that
we have in groundwater.

It's called Darcy's law.

Don't panic too much
about the giant equation.

I throw this up here just

so it scares the shit out of you

and you have to hire me to
do whatever you need done.

Really what it is. It's
my permeability number,

this K, hydraulic connectivity.

The area that I have to
move through and my slope.

What's the slope?
It's this height.

That gives me discharge.

Now I can calculate how
much water is moving

through that aquifer or

how much water I'm going
to get out of the aquifer,

which is more important
to most of us.

By using this equation,

we can calculate that.

But groundwater moves differently
in different regions.

Around here, it's cars based,

so you're going to
have sinkholes and

all kinds of
disappearing rivers,

arid regions, as
we'll see here, mean,

it could be wet and dry periods,

so water levels do go up and
down and so do other things.

This all impacts our
groundwater resources

and changes with the times.

This could be due
to all kinds of

different reasons, obviously.

So it brings me to

an equation which I think
you guys can handle.

This is my favorite
mathematical equation.

It's called the water budget.

It's pretty simple. I
have my glass of water.

If I add water to
my glass of water,

what does the water
level in my glass do?

It goes up.

If I drink that water,

what does the level
of my water glass do?

It goes down. This is my math.

But it allows me to
actually look at

from a basin standpoint or
a watershed standpoint,

what's happening with
my water resources.

Because it's pretty
important because if I have

more going in than
I'm taking out,

it is like your bank
account. That's good.

But if I start taking out
more than is going in,

what's that do to all the water
resources in that valley?

They all go down.
We're overstretching

and using more than we should.

It helps us become
more sustainable,

which is something
we're all going to have

to deal with as we move forward.

So some assumptions
we make is that

we have to usually
calculate what recharge

is and we usually
look at rainfall.

Of course, rainfall is sporadic.

You can get rainfall in one

county and none of
the other county,

but the watershed or
my groundwater basin

may cover both counties.

You have to make some
assumptions there what

the annual recharge might be.

What's return flow?
Anybody know?

Anybody ever heard that term?

How many people sit
on a septic tank?

I have a septic tank
at their house.

Every time you flush the toilet,

you're recharging
the groundwater.

We have to make some
calculations with

that may make some assumptions.

Other things we have to know is

what's the pumping
going on in that area.

Then surface water and this
big vapor transformation,

which is really
the plant uptake.

Plants steal water from us.

Of course, they give
us some oxygen,

which helps, but they
do steal our water.

So we basically
line up our inputs

and our outputs to our
bathtub or glass of water.

Our inputs are going
to be rain and snow.

It's going to be
that septic system,

what you discharge out the back.

It's going to be some streams
and springs coming in,

but we can also have groundwater

coming into our area as well as

leaving it because our
outputs are usage,

our pumping, plants,
rivers leaving our area,

then that groundwater
leaving the area.

Well, it's actually

pretty simple to make
these calculations.

What I want to do is
give an example of

one we did out in
the Mojave Desert,

some students of mine.

I forgot their names already,
so it doesn't matter.

Here is our inputs.

Here's three different
people who did

this inputs out there and
these are an acre-feet.

It ranged from about 1,000-1,700

acre-feet per year to my basin.

The outputs were from
4-10,000 going out.

So what should the water
levels in this basin

be doing? Going down.

You see down here, all
these negative numbers.

Well, let's look at safe yield,

then I'll show you
the hydrograph.

This is straight
out of a textbook.

Safe yield is the amount of

naturally occurring
groundwater that can

be economically and legally.

Let me get the lawyers in there,

withdrawn from an aquifer on
a sustained basis without

impairing native quality
or environmental damage.

Basically, what goes in should
equal what's coming out.

Here is that same
hydrograph I showed you

for surface water
but in groundwater.

This is water levels
taken in a well.

Here's 1964, here's 1999.

We're looking at about 80 feet.

Not sustainable.

Sooner you're going
to run out of water.

But something happened

here, we're going
to talk about that.

With those hydrographs, which we

use in the hydrogeology
field all the time.

In fact, the USGS does a
huge website that they

measure hydrographs from
waters all over the country,

actually all over the
world, in some cases,

and certainly scientists.

But really, we're
trying to get lots of

data to see what's happening
at those water levels.

Well, here's that
same hydrograph

with some other wells
in the same basin,

they all are showing
the same thing.

They're all going down.

Yeah, there's one anomaly in

here where somebody's
doing something different,

but they're all going
down until 1992,

I believe it is or 1994.

This is that flat area.

At this point in time,

everything was going
down until 1994,

then all of a sudden something

happened that made
it sustainable.

Well, what happened
was the farmers out in

this area were pumping
it's Mojave Desert.

They're growing
alfalfa. Mojave desert.

What the hell are we doing
growing alfalfa out there?

They're just pumping
out the water.

It's easy to get out,

it's shallow, just pump it out,

use it, but they weren't taking

care of it. So it's going down.

What happened is
they had to come in

there and force the farmers to

start utilizing a
certain amount of

water based upon
the water budgets,

saying, you just
can't keep pumping

forever at the rates you are,

we're going to ramp you down.

We're not going to
say you can't water,

we're just going
to say you can't

use unlimited amounts of water.

We're going to give
you some limits.

It's called adjudication
in California.

They went in there
and said, This is

how much water you get.

We're going to divide it amongst

the people whatever they did.

Ultimately what happened
was at that point in time,

everyone agreed and everybody

was able to live nice and

happy with one another
because everything was flat.

They used what
they were getting.

Now, does that
eliminate the farmers?

No, they just changed farms.

Now they grow
almonds and olives,

which take a whole hell
of a lot less water.

It turns out for some
of the farmers there,

the successful ones, the
cash crop was better.

They actually ended up
doing much better job.

So ultimately, we can use

these hydrographs to look at

water level declines
or increases.

In some cases, I got areas
where water levels are going

up. Why is that?

Because there's
less people using

it. That can be bad too.

In earthquake country, we

don't want shallow water tables,

then everything falls down
through liquefaction.

We also don't want
deep water changes

going on the opposite
direction either.

It's a balancing act, but it
is one that we can handle.

Using simple little equation,

we can put our water balance

for groundwater
standpoint in check.

Groundwater and wells.

Well, I love this
picture, and there again,

I'll share this PowerPoint
with anybody who wants it.

This is a picture I stole
from Johnson screens.

Because I just love
it because it shows

what the hell it
looks like downhole.

Remember, we can't see it.
But every time we pump,

we end up with drawdown,

with drawdown well,

my water tables up here
and I start pumping,

I'm going to drop
the water there.

Now, the key with an
unconfined aquifer is I'm

actually dewatering the aquifer.

A confined aquifer when I pump
it, I'm depressurizing it.

I'm taking water out,

but the pressure remember is way

above maybe potentially
land surface.

I'm depressurizing it.
I'm not dewatering it.

Here, in an unconfined aquifer,

I'm actually taking
water out of storage.

It's coming out of the geology

and this is now part
of the Vado Zone.

It could be permanent
basis or it

may be on a temporary basis.

What happens is
we start pumping,

even though our
groundwater flow is

discharging towards
this little creek here,

we're basically capturing some

of that water which
would have gone

down here ahead of time and

using it for whatever
purpose we want.

That is not to say this water
doesn't come back in here

before here and we have
a negative zero impact,

but it can be a negative
impact as well.

This is something that
we're going to have

to deal with is putting

water wells next to streams
makes a lot of sense.

But if we start drying
up those streams,

somebody's going to
notice because they

can see the surface water.

They don't tend to see the
groundwater once again.

Certainly we use water
for all fun purposes.

And here again, if

your septic systems that's
over here goes down over,

back up, and you
can use it again.

What's good about
that is what comes

out of me can go back in me.

Astronauts have shown
that for years.

It's what comes out of
you I don't want in me.

I don't know what drugs
you've been doing.

Which is something we're
going to have to worry about.

When I talk about
100 million gallons

of recycled water every day,

one of the things we're worried
about is pharmaceuticals.

They are small enough to get

through the vers
osmosis systems.

Now they're such small
quantities that,

whether or not it does any
damage to us, we don't know.

Remember, the EPA sets

their standards on
the water quality,

but it's based on data
from 20 years ago.

I mean, they're always
20 years behind.

They're trying to eliminate
the risk with who knows what?

Well. Here's some
pictures real quick.

Don't worry about the text.

This showing the flow lines
here is groundwater flow.

I have my recharge area up here,

a discharge area down here,

it could be a stream
or a lake and

you can put your well in
there and capture some

of it or you can do it in

a sustainable manner and
there's ways to do that.

Lots of calculations go into it.

Man's interaction with it.

The picture I want to show
you is this one right here.

Famous picture, Central
Valley of California.

What I didn't know
until I started

teaching was California
is responsible

for 30% of all the food in
the United States as a state,

30% of all the food

in the United States
comes from California.

A lot of it comes from
the Central Valley.

1925, the land used to be up
there. Now it's down here.

That's not due to erosion,

that's due to over pumping

the aquifers there and
the land subsided.

This is an older photograph.

The subsidence there has
been nearly 100%, 100 feet.

The land has dropped

100 feet because they
took out all the water.

There's nothing to
hold the sediment up,

it just collapses on itself.

You can actually from over

pumping and stuff and dry areas,

you can get these cracks
and fissures going over.

But something to keep
in mind. This is

not just a California thing.

We're seeing this
in Texas as well as

other states. Water quality.

Well, when it comes
to water quality,

keep in mind that groundwater

today is the cleanest

it's ever going to
be in the future.

It's tough to
swallow. Why is that?

Because everybody in this room,

everything we do does
something to the water system.

Be it you're taking a pill,
you urinate, wastewater.

It's you fertilized your yard.

It's the air pollution
that gets in the water,

the acid rain comes down.

It's always going to get worse.

Today is the best it's
going to be in the future.

That's okay because the
good news is we have

engineers whose sole job

is to figure out how
to clean this shit up.

Their job is to try to provide

us with good quality water.

Now, does it mean
that we can't get

good quality water out of
the ground in certain areas?

Absolutely, we can. We still do.

But over time, is that
going to stay the same?

We have natural occurring

contaminants sitting
in the ground,

arsenic and chrome, or natural
occurring contaminants.

Nitrates are not.

Nitrates are man made.

When you find nitrate
in your water,

that's because somebody
put it out there.

But yet, we have
to have the food.

It's a life cycle we're
going to have to deal with.

I can get in the ground all
kinds of different ways,

straight down,
dissolve minerals.

Obviously, limestone can get
down there quite quickly.

Landfills, cars, you name it.

Everything we do on the surface

impacts our groundwater
one way or another.

It's only a matter of time.

If you start looking at China
and some foreign countries,

we're light years away from

them from water
quality standpoint.

Why? Because we use
groundwater an awful lot.

We don't rely on surface water.

The nice thing about
the ground is what?

It filters shit out.

It takes things out,

it adds things to it.

Why does Orange County and

their 100 million gallon
recycled system put

it back in the
ground? Anybody know?

Why don't they just
give it to us?

Because when it comes out
of their treatment plant,

it's pure H_2O,
has nothing in it.

Pure H_2O, if that's

the only source of water
you drink, will kill you.

I demineralizes you.

We need the minerals.

We need the geology in
order to put the minerals

back in the water when we
drink it, it has flavor.

Distilled water has no flavor

because it has no
minerals in it.

It has no contaminants,
either, but that's okay.

I just adds flavor.
We need that geology.

We need that ground water
to go into the ground,

dissolve some of those minerals,

pick them up because we need
those as a human being.

The only thing we
are is a little pile

of white stuff
after you get zap.

Remember the old Star Trek?

They zap the guy
and the only thing

left is a little
pile of white stuff.

All we are is
jellyfish with salts.

Well, that's what we need.

We need that water to
go back in the ground.

Groundwater is
always going to be

a great source of
drinking water.

Why does surface water suck so

badly for drinking
water? Anybody know?

It has to be base.

Well, it's always going
to be slightly acidic,

but that's not really
the problem. What is it?

Low mineral count.

It has low mineral count
and it fluctuates.

It's at the surface.

Flow wise, it fluctuates a
lot more than groundwater.

Groundwater is pretty steady.

Other thing is, it doesn't take

a whole lot to contaminate
surface water.

It actually takes quite a bit
to contaminate groundwater.

Groundwater is always
going to be a safer source

of water ultimately.

Certainly, we're going to land

farming and all that good stuff,

landfills are always
easy to point out.

Factories are always bad things,

but we all like our iPhones
and everything else.

I point out there's
a seven-mile plume

of TCE under City of Phoenix.

Why? Because somehow
City of Phoenix

wants to make a lot
of transistors,

but every transistor requires

170-180 gallons of pure water.

It's in Phoenix, Arizona.

Why would we put
this in the tropics

somewhere where they
actually have lots of water?

One hundred and eighty
gallons per transistor.

Now, how many transistors
in your cell phone?

Every cell phone?

I mean, just add it up.

We're talking thousands
of gallons of water

just to make one phone,

and it's in Phoenix, Arizona.

Well, who knows? Some tools

we use to investigate things.

We're starting to use
remote sensing a lot more.

I can't wait to
get my own drone.

It's like drop bombs and

ex-girlfriends or
ex-wives, whatever it is.

But nonetheless,
I want to drone.

That's cool. We're going to

our Amazon's going to deliver

all our packages by drones now.

You order it in 30 minutes.

Vile Drone flies at
your front doorstep,

drops your book,
and off it goes.

It's going to be cool and it's

going to be some fun things,

but we use geophysics.

Here's some geophysics out in
the beach in Lake Michigan.

We're looking for
some clay units

for discharge into
Lake Michigan.

A lot of computer modeling
is taking place now,

which is allowing us
to do some things.

There again, the
problem with it is it's

only have crappy data.

You can make a pretty
picture, but if it's

crappy data, it
doesn't mean much.

But there's going to be
a lot of advancements

here over the next decade.

It's going to be
fun. Like I said,

the drone thing is something
I'm excited about.

In fact, I have my own blimp,

by the way, and I've
had one for 20 years.

That's how I've been
taking my a photographs.

Actually, own my own blimp.

How many people
do you know that?

How many people in
her own a blimp?

See? Special. Anyway, hopefully,

you'll learn something
about basic definitions

and some water quality
and some other things.

We went through some things come

up fast, but nonetheless,

I want to thank
everybody and thank

Cal State Fuerts and NGBA
for allowing me to be here,

and I appreciate everyone's
time and thoughts.

Any questions? Besides the code?

Yeah. Any questions? Ahead.

At a rate that is
going to get collapse.

Absolutely. We can take

steps to start
replenishing parts of it.

But overall, you're probably
not going to gain it back

unless climate changes again

and gets rainy,
which can happen.

It was an old sea to begin with,

so maybe it comes
back to being that.

Maybe you can get some
oceanside property there.

But certainly,
there's things we can

artificially do to recharge.

Some of the things people
are doing a lot more.

What Orange County
does was a gamble.

We spent $4-5 billion to set up

this system and
had to go through

all the EPA and everything
else and it was amazing.

But then now they've
gotten to the

point where they've proven

beyond any reasonable doubt

and other countries
are modeling this too.

Singapore. Their whole system

is designed after Orange County,

Saudi Arabia, everyone else.

That is taking the water

that we use for
whatever purpose.

I talk about wastewater
and toilet water,

it's 48 hours from the time
you flush your toilet to

that water drop being back
in the ground, 48 hours.

That's going to happen more.

If we do that,

ultimately, during
the wet years,

become sustainable, the
wet years will fill things

up if you can become
sustainable in the short cycle.

From farming standpoint,

we have a lot of
return flow because

now we're getting
better about it because

that's one thing farm,

always over water, because

more water is to
make it greener.

Well, isn't always the case.

The farmers have done a
better job now of managing

the soil moisture so

water when the plant
really needs it.

That's helping sustain
that a little bit,

and that should help
bring some stuff back.

But ultimately be more of
this urban water cycle than

wait for the wet years
to bring back things

to a bigger fuller situation.

Other questions? None.
Anybody asleep yet? Yeah.

Hydrogen make water.

Yeah. Every time you sweat.

Like me right now, I got lots

of H2 underneath modern pits.

Well, the problem
is economically.

Comes down to economics, like

desalinization. We
live in California.

We've got the world's
largest ocean

sitting right there,
the Pacific Ocean.

Why wouldn't we just take
the water from there,

get rid of the salt,
and use that for

drinking water? We are.

The problem is from
a cost standpoint,

it's well,

it was about $2,000 an

acre-foot to treat
desalinated water.

We could buy water
from anywhere else in

the country for
about 1,000 or less.

We stole from the Colorado,

we steal from San Francisco.

We can buy Lake Michigan
for cheaper than that.

Now, Michigan passed a law
that California specifically,

California can't steal
the water, by the way.

Why they had to pass a
law for that? Who knows?

But they did. But now the
desalinization is about $1,000.

What Orange County is doing is

about $900 an acre-foot
for its whole system,

so we're still
cheaper than that.

Sooner or later, desalization

price-wise will get down
where it makes sense.

But from an energy standpoint,

it is where it's really costs,

so just make an H2O,
we can make it.

We can have hydrogen
cars. Why don't we?

Because of cost.
It's just over time.

Worse as we move forward,

that means there's going to
have to be a cost to water.

Water is free.

You only pay for delivery.

Now, you pay for some
treatment of the water,

but you're actually
not buying the water.

You're buying the
delivery of the water.

Of course, my wife is one
of those people we live in

the city and she complains

about the taste of
it all the time.

I taste the chlorine. Why do
we put chlorine in water?

Well, it keeps all the
bacteria from killing you.

It kills all the bacteria.

Not in their pipes,
not the city's pipes.

Their pipes are fine.
It's your house.

Where's the worst spot for

bacteria for water
at your faucet?

What's the worst water
you can ever get?

Take a five-gallon jug down to

your local grocery store and
that big thing out in front,

it's attached to a
garden hose, by the way.

There's tons of bacteria there.

Yet people are still
sitting there buying

their five-gallon bottle of

water because it has to be good.

It came from the grocery store.

We pay as much for
water as beer.

At least beer is distilled
and I get happy over it.

I need t-shirts, drink
beer, not water.

To Orange County.

The reformation process.

How come Mites
aren't doing that?

Is that the
cost-effective thing?

Well, it also depends
on where you're at.

In Orange County, we have

four million people
and we're desert.

We only get 16 inches
of rain a year.

I made sense for us to
be more of that system.

If you're in Minnesota, up
until this point in time,

they had 10,000 lakes.

There's plenty of water. So
they don't need to do it.

I mean, Atlanta,
Georgia, I mean,

the river that they
ran the Olympics,

the kayaking, I guess in is dry.

There's no water in
that river anymore.

They could not run the Olympics

today in Atlanta, Georgia,

and it's because they

dropped they stole
all the water from

the river and had fights with

other states and other
things a lot more to it.

But again, they're looking
at recycling stuff.

It's why Coca-Cola is doing

a big push on trying
to water recycling,

recycle the plastic bottles.

I mean, the same thing holds

true for water as for
trash and everything else.

I hate to use the word
sustainable because

99% of the public

doesn't even know what
the hell it means.

It's a cool word. It's sexy.

I can write sustainability
on any grant and get it.

It doesn't mean it has anything
to do with sustainable.

But when we use 100 gallons of

water and we don't have to
buy it from anyone else,

we are now sustainable.

It's a cost to that,
but we are not

having to borrow water
from anyone else.

Other questions?
Someone else had one?