Effect of Simulated Tree Canopy Removal on a Municipal Wellfield in the Puget Sound Aquifer System, Thurston County, Washington

Abstract

Effects of tree canopy removal on a wellfield were simulated using a groundwater flow model characteristic of hydrogeologic settings in the Puget Sound aquifer system. Effects were estimated according to simulated changes in flow patterns that may result from tree canopy removal associated with varying degrees of residential development. The flow model used was a modified version of a model of the hydrogeologic setting in Thurston County, Washington; the wellfield was one planned for Olympia, Washington, and the canopy modifications spanned a range of possible land use change scenarios. The relative effects of tree canopy removal were estimated in terms of potential changes in capture zones for the wellfield and groundwater levels. Because of the depth of the wellfield and the dispersal of the effects from changes in recharge at ground surface, potential changes in wellfield capture zones and groundwater levels were discernible but small compared to other possible influences.

First posted January 7, 2014