ERM 535

Water Law and Policy

January 13, 2021

Course Requirements

Basic Hydrology/Hydrogeology
 Water Resources - Definitions
• Surface Water
– Encyclopedia.com
• Surface water includes water found in streams, rivers,
lakes, marshland, snow, ocean water, or any other
water found on Earth’s surface. Groundwater is located
in the subsurface in reservoirs (aquifers).
– Merriam Webster
• natural water that has not penetrated much below the
surface of the ground
 Water Resources – Definitions (cont’d)

• Surface Water (cont’d)

– Wikipedia
• Surface water is water on the surface of the planet
such as in a river, lake, wetland, or ocean.
• Diffuse Surface Water – No “non-legal”
definition. A legal term of art.
 Water Resources – Definitions (cont’d)

• Tailwater
– Wikipedia
• waters located immediately downstream from a
hydraulic structure, such as a dam (excluding minimum
release such as for fish water), bridge or culvert
– Merriam Webster
• water below a dam or waterpower development
• excess surface water draining especially from a field
under cultivation.
 Water Resources – Definitions (cont’d)
• Reclaimed Water
– Wikipedia
• Reclaimed or recycled water (also called wastewater reuse
or water reclamation) is the process of converting
wastewater into water that can be reused for other
purposes.
• Effluent
– Wikipedia
• The Compact Oxford English Dictionary defines effluent as
"liquid waste or sewage discharged into a river or the sea".
 Water Resources – Definitions (cont’d)

• Wikipedia
– Wastewater
• Wastewater (or waste water) is any water that has
been affected by human use.
 Water Measurements in the US
• Context
– Water Resources Management
– Water Resources Policy
– Water Resources Law
 Water Measurements in the US (cont’d)

• Units applies may vary by sector

– Agriculture
– Mining
– Industry
– Municipal Providers
– others
• Conversions can be found on Google if you
need to visualize in metric units
 Water Measurements in the US (cont’d)

• Acre Foot (AF)

– 325,851 U.S. Gallons
• Cubic Foot (CF)
– 7.48 U.S. Gallons
• Cubic Feet/Second (CFS)
– 1.98 AF/24 hours
• Million Gallons/Day (MGD)
– 3.07 AF
 Water Measurements in the US (cont’d)
• Miner’s Inches - Historically, the unit lacked a firm
definition or equivalent measurement, and varied
by location, leading to confusion within the mining
industry. In 1905, its usage in California was
standardized.
– 1/40 CFS Arizona, Northern California, Montana, Nevada,
Oregon
– 1/38 CFS  Colorado
– 1/50 CFS Southern California, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska,
New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah,
Washington
 Hydrologic Cycle
• The water cycle, or hydrologic cycle, is a
continuous process by which water is purified
by evaporation and transported from the
earth's surface (including the oceans) to the
atmosphere and back to the land and oceans.
 Surface Water Hydrology
(Non-legal terminology)
• Surface water is the result of precipitation
• Without human intervention, surface water
will flow to the sea
– Some water infiltrates the soil and percolates
downward to “groundwater”
– Some water becomes trapped by the soil (vadose
water)
– Some water evaporates
– Some water becomes trapped in closed basins
 Surface Water Hydrology
• General Facts
– Flows downhill by gravity
• Water is “heavy”
– 8.34 US pounds/gallon, 83.4 US pounds/10 gallons, 834 US
pounds/100 gallons, 8,340 US pounds/1000 gallons, 8,340,000 US
pounds/Million Gallons
• A pump discharging 450 gallons per minute is lifting 1.87
tons of water every minute
• Surface water and groundwater usually interact or are
“connected” in some way
– Can be short-term/temporary
– Can be long-term/permanent (in natural state)
 Groundwater Hydrology
(Hydrogeology)
“When the well is dry, we know the value of water.” Benjamin Franklin
 What is Groundwater?
Scientific Definition (all scientific definitions used
here are from Bouwer, 1978)
That portion of the water beneath the surface
of the earth that can be collected with wells,
tunnels, or drainage galleries, or that flows
naturally to the earth’s surface via seeps or
springs.

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 Exceptions
Not all underground water is groundwater.

Groundwater is distinguished by water that

exists underground at greater than atmospheric
pressure.

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 Vadose, or Unsaturated, zone
The zone between the ground surface and the top
of the groundwater is called the vadose, or
unsaturated, zone.
• May contain water
• Water is bound to soil particles or other
underground material by capillary forces
• Water may move within the vadose zone, but
cannot move out of the zone into wells or other
places that are exposed to atmospheric pressure.
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 Aquifers
The saturated zone, or as preferred by Bouwer, the groundwater zone, where
the pressure of the water is above atmospheric pressure.

Formations that are sufficiently permeable to transmit and yield water in

usable quantities are called aquifers.

Suitable materials
• Unconsolidated sands and gravels
• Sandstones
• Cavernous Limestones with solution channels, caves, underground streams
• Fractured shales, fractured solid limestones, and other fractured igneous
and metamorphic rocks

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 Unconfined Aquifers
No clay or other restricting material at the top of the
groundwater restricting the rise and fall of groundwater
elevations.
The top of the unconfined aquifer is the water table, where
groundwater pressures are equal to atmospheric pressure.
The lower boundary consists of much less permeable
material than the aquifer.
Principle source of groundwater in unconfined aquifers is
precipitation either from direct seepage, or indirectly
through surface runoff and seepage from streams or lakes.

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 Confined Aquifers
A layer of water-bearing material (such as sands and gravels)
sandwiched between two layers of much less pervious
material, such as clay or shale.
If the confining layers are essentially impermeable, they are
called aquicludes.
If the confining layers are sufficiently permeable to transmit
water vertically, but not laterally like an aquifer, they are
called aquitards. An aquifer bound by one or two aquitards is
called a leaky, or semiconfined aquifer.
Layers of low permeability forming boundaries of aquifers or
separating various aquifers are called confining layers.
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 Putting the “System” Together

Surface Water and Groundwater Interactions

 Definitions of Streams
Wikipedia
• A perennial stream or perennial river is a stream or river (channel) that has continuous flow in
parts of its stream bed all year round during years of normal rainfall.
• Intermittent streams normally cease flowing for weeks or months each year,
• Ephemeral channels flow only for hours or days following rainfall.
• During unusually dry years, a normally perennial stream may cease flowing, becoming
intermittent for days, weeks, or months depending on severity of the drought.
• The boundaries between perennial, intermittent, and ephemeral channels are indefinite, and
subject to a variety of identification methods adopted by local governments, academics, and
others with a need to classify stream-flow permanence.
• As stream flow decreases in dry weather, visible flow above the stream bed may not be readily
evident, especially in streams with coarse substrate (gravel and rocks), where water is flowing
beneath and between these particles (hyporheic flow).
• From a biological perspective, a stream may be considered flowing if sufficient water is
available to support flow-dependent aquatic life, including fish and gill-breathing amphibians,
benthic insects, crustaceans, and mollusks, many of which survive in shallow hyporheic flow
beneath rocks or logs. This extreme low flow may not be detectable on typical USGS stream-
flow gauges, but is vital to stream ecology.

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 Intermittent Stream
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service

A stream, or reach of a stream, that does

not flow year-round (commonly dry for 3 or
more months out of 12) and whose channel is
generally below the local water table; it flows
only when it receives a) base flow (i.e., solely
during wet periods), or b) ground-
water discharge or protracted contributions
from melting snow or other erratic surface and
shallow subsurface sources.
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 The Difference Between Intermittent and
Ephemeral
US EPA Archives

• Seasonal streams (intermittent) flow during certain times

of the year when smaller upstream waters are flowing and
when groundwater provides enough water for stream flow.
Runoff from rainfall or other precipitation supplements the
flow of seasonal stream. During dry periods, seasonal
streams may not have flowing surface water. Larger
seasonal streams are more common in dry areas.
• Rain-dependent streams (ephemeral) flow only after
precipitation. Runoff from rainfall is the primary source of
water for these streams. Like seasonal streams, they can be
found anywhere but are most prevalent in arid areas.
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Another Definition of Intermittent Streams

A stream which flows perennially in some

reaches but not others.

May be caused naturally because of

hydrogeologic conditions.

May be caused by upstream uses of water.

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 Ephemeral Streams
Ephemeral streams are streams that do not
always flow. They are above the groundwater
table (saturated zone) and appear after
precipitation in the area.

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 ERM 535 Definitions
• Perennial Stream – a stream, or reach of a
stream, that flows year round and is always
connected to the groundwater system.
• Intermittent Stream – a stream that flows in
some reaches and not in others. Reaches of
the stream may be perennial or ephemeral.
• Ephemeral Stream – a stream that flows only
in response to recent precipitation events.
Gaining Ephemeral Stream – Least Common

• A wash flows through an area with shallow

groundwater
• Groundwater levels rise in response to area
precipitation/infiltration, eventually above the
stream bottom causing the stream to flow on
the surface.

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Losing Ephemeral Stream – Most Common

• When the stream (wash) flows, water

infiltrates into the base and banks of the
stream and flows vertically to the
groundwater system. For longer duration
events, the unsaturated (vadose) zone can
become saturated and temporarily connected
to the groundwater system.

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 Important Hydrogeologic Terminology
Hydraulic conductivity is a fundamental parameter that governs the flow of liquids
such as groundwater through aquifers and other porous media. Specifically, hydraulic
conductivity is a quantitative measure of the capacity of a geologic formation or other
porous media to transmit a specific fluid. It is determined by the characteristics of
both the porous medium and the fluid of interest.

Transmissibility (or transmissivity) is a property closely related to hydraulic

conductivity that describes the capacity of a specific water-bearing unit of a given
thickness, such as an aquifer, to transmit water. Transmissibility is most simply defined
as the effective hydraulic conductivity of an aquifer or other water-bearing unit
multiplied by the thickness of that unit.

Darcy’s Law is an empirical relationship for liquid flow through a porous medium. A
common application is groundwater flow through an aquifer. Darcy’s Law gives the
relationship among the flow rate of the groundwater, the cross-sectional area of the
aquifer perpendicular to the flow, the hydraulic gradient, and the hydraulic
conductivity of the aquifer.

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 The Cone of Depression
Shorter-term Impacts of Groundwater Pumping

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Two Types of Cones of Depression

A cone of depression occurs in an aquifer when groundwater is

pumped from a well. In an unconfined aquifer (water table), this is an
actual depression of the water levels. In confined aquifers (artesian), the
cone of depression is a reduction in the pressure head surrounding the
pumped well.

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Confined v. Unconfined Aquifers
Confined Aquifers Unconfined Aquifers

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 Surface Water/Groundwater Interaction

Ephemeral Streams – Typically “losing” streams

• How can surface water and groundwater interact in a losing
stream?
– When water first enters a dry wash, the area between the bottom of
the wash and the saturated zone are separated by the vadose, or
unsaturated zone
– If the wash flows for an extended period of time, the area between
the wash bottom and the saturated zone can become saturated, or the
local groundwater levels rise to intercept the bottom of the stream

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 Surface Water/Groundwater Interaction

The more rare gaining ephemeral stream –

groundwater flows into a stream and appears on
the surface.

• Local groundwater levels rise due to a recent

precipitation or melt event and groundwater levels
temporarily rise and intercept the bottom of a
typically dry stream, causing it to flow

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 Perennial Streams and Groundwater

• Losing Stream – Water from a perennial

flowing stream “leaks” into an underlying
groundwater system which flows away from
the stream

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Losing Stream

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 Perennial Systems and Groundwater

• Gaining Stream – Water from the groundwater

system flows into the stream contributing
and/or maintaining flow in the stream

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Gaining Stream

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Surface Water Impacts from Groundwater
Pumping

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Surface Water Impacts from Groundwater
Pumping

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Surface Water Impacts from Groundwater
Pumping

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Surface Water Impacts from Groundwater
Pumping

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Managing Groundwater Wells in a Bifurcated
System

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Managing Groundwater Wells in a Unified PA
System

Turning off a well is not the same as shutting a head gate from a
stream – there are time delay effects, assuming the hydrologic
system can reset to “normal” or pre-pumping conditions
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