Jeffrey D. King, P.G., President of I2M Associates, LLC and of PERC, announced today the successful initiation of a long-term PERC ground-water monitoring program at a Tacoma, Washington industrial site. I2M Associates, LLC is providing hydrogeological support to the program led by I2M’s Chief Hydrogeologist, Michael D. Campbell, P.G., P.H. The program is now remotely recording data from six monitoring wells, three installed at three corners of the site in a shallow confined aquifer and three in a confined aquifer of intermediate depth, as well as monitoring local rainfall and battery voltage, which is recharged by solar panels: http://www.i2m-stevens.com/overview.php
The purpose of the program is to characterize the potential impact of:
- diurnal tidal fluctuations,
- rainfall recharge, and
- other environmental factors (i.e., barometric-pressure fluctuations, earthquakes disturbances, and possible compression of the confined aquifers by passing trains adjacent to the site).
The program became necessary because of the rapidly fluctuating water levels indicated by monthly and daily manual measurements of the monitoring wells screened in the two aquifers did not permit the characterization of the pressure distribution and hence ground-water flow direction within the two confined aquifers with any certainty. Manual monthly monitoring provided only a “snap-shot” in time which produced a potentiometric surface map that was only accurate for that specific “snap-shot” in time. A continuous monitoring program with 15-minute data readouts is required to appropriately characterize the rapidly changing subsurface conditions and has recently confirmed complex, but identifiable patterns of ground-water flow. The program will be operated through a number months of changing seasons in the Tacoma region and will result in reduced costs of data management while increasing data reliability for site characterization of subsurface conditions.
