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Geology topics

Raymond L. Nace

Publications and source records attributed to Raymond L. Nace.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS1973

Problems of underground storage of wastes

Problems of underground storage of waste involve geology in its broadest sense, including hydrology, geochemistry, and geophysics. Wastes may be solid, liquid, or gaseous, and they may be chemically toxic or noxious, esthetically offensive, or radioactive. Some wastes require only temporary containment, whereas others must be isolated for indefinitely long periods. The means and locale for emplacement underground depend upon many governing geological factors, including the physical, chemical, hydrological, and hydraulic properties of the host formation. These must be studied relative to the physical, chemical, and thermal properties of the waste and of potential interactions between the waste and the host formation. Thorough knowledge is essential because lack of it may lead to undesirable or disastrous environmental consequences. Escape of waste may contaminate the surface or near-surface environment; it may destroy the usefulness or accessibility of resources such as ground water, petroleum, and minerals. Effective management of underground waste requires adaptation of current technology and development of new technology.

Journal of Research of the U.S. Geological Survey↗
USGS1967

Are we running out of water?

Water supplies are not running out, but time is getting short to stem waste of water and destructive exploitation of the environment before harm is done that may be irreparable. Most of the world's water is oceanic brine. Of the waters on the land, most is frozen in Antarctica and Greenland. Only a small part of continental water is available for use and management. The discharge of rivers to the sea is a close measure of the availability of liquid water, but ground-water reservoirs have important functions as inexpensive equalizers of water supply. Soil moisture is a major factor in the water economy, and its function usually is overlooked in assessments of water use and future water demand. Despite outcries of water shortage, the principal use of water in advanced countries is as a medium for waste disposal. In reality, despite regional maldistribution of water, United States supplies are adequate, given rational management. Also, contrary to common belief, water pollution is primarily a problem of economics, not of health. A paramount problem in most parts of the world is the shortage of water development and management facilities, not a shortage of water. The International Hydrological Decade is a program to awaken people everywhere to the crucial importance of water in man's future and to promote rational approach to water problems.

Circular↗
USGS1961

Water resources of the Raft River basin, Idaho-Utah

Much arable land in the Raft River basin of Idaho lacks water for irrigation, and the potentially irrigable acreage far exceeds the amount that could be irrigated with the estimated total supply of water. Therefore, the amount of uncommitted water that could be intercepted and used within the basin is the limiting factor in further development of its native water supply. Water for additional irrigation might be obtained by constructing surface-storage works, by pumping ground water, or by importing surface water. Additional groundwater development is feasible. As an aid to orderly development and use of the water supplies, the report summarizes available geologic and hydrologic data and, by analysis and interpretation, derives an estimate of the recoverable water yield of the basin.

Idaho, Utah↗
USGS1960

Water management, agriculture, and ground-water supplies

Encyclopedic data on world geography strikingly illustrate the drastic inequity in the distribution of the world's water supply. About 97 percent of the total volume of water is in the world's oceans. The area of continents and islands not under icecaps, glaciers, lakes, and inland seas is about 57.5 million square miles, of which 18 million (36 percent) is arid to semiarid. The total world supply of water is about 326.5 million cubic miles, of which about 317 million is in the oceans and about 9.4 million is in the land areas. Atmospheric moisture is equivalent to only about 3,100 cubic miles of water. The available and accessible supply of ground water in the United States is somewhat more than 53,000 cubic miles (about 180 billion acre ft). The amount of fresh water on the land areas of the world at any one time is roughly 30,300 cubic miles and more than a fourth of this is in large fresh-water lakes on the North American Continent. Annual recharge of ground water in the United States may average somewhat more than 1 billion acre-feet yearly, but the total volume of ground water in storage is equivalent to all the recharge in about the last 160 years. This accumulation of ground water is the nation's only reserve water resource, but already it is being withdrawn or mined on a large scale in a few areas. The principal withdrawals of water in the United States are for agriculture and industry. Only 7.4 percent of agricultural land is irrigated, however; so natural soil moisture is the principal source of agricultural water, and on that basis agriculture is incomparably the largest water user. In view of current forecasts of population and industrial expansion, new commitments of water for agriculture should be scrutinized very closely, and thorough justification should be required. The 17 Western States no longer contain all the large irrigation developments. Nearly 10 percent of the irrigated area is in States east of the western bloc, chiefly in several Southeastern States. Ground water is not completely 'self-renewing' because, where it is being mined, the reserve is being diminished and the reserve would be renewed only if pumping were stopped. Water is being mined at the rate of 5 million acre-feet per year in Arizona and 6 million in the High Plains of Texas. In contrast, water has been going into storage in the Snake River Plain of Idaho, where deep percolation from surface-water irrigation has added about 10 million acre-feet of storage since irrigation began. Situations in California illustrate problems of land subsidence resulting from pumping and use of water, and deterioration of ground-water reservoirs due to sea-water invasion. Much water development in the United States has been haphazard and rarely has there been integrated development of ground water and surface water. Competition is sharpening and new codes of water law are in the making. New laws, however, will not prevent the consequences of bad management. An important task for water management is to recognize the contingencies that may arise in the future and to prepare for them. The three most important tasks at hand are to make more efficient use of water, to develop improved quantitative evaluations of water supplies arid their quality, and to develop management practices which are based on scientific hydrology.

Circular↗
USGS1958

Records of springs in the Snake River valley, Jerome and Gooding Counties, Idaho, 1899-1947

Many springs and seeps discharge water from the north wall of the valley of the Snake River between Milner and Bliss, Idaho. These are fed by a large ground-water body lying east and north of the river, beneath the Snake River Plain. Much ground water is pumped on the plain, many irrigation wells having been drilled since 1946. Heavy withdrawal of ground water from wells may alter the discharge rates and regimens of the springs and may affect downstream flow of the river. For that reason, the historic record of discharge from the springs is an important part of the basis on which hydrologic changes can be determined. The records also would facilitate appraisal of the total groundwater resources of the Snake River Plain. This report brings together in a single volume all obtainable records for the period 1899-1947. The report also includes descriptive data and a brief history of work done. The springs occur in a 40-mile reach of the valley of the Snake River between Milner Dam and Bliss. Most are on the north side of the river but a few are on the south. The earliest measurements of record were made by F. S. Shirley and N. S. Dils, of the U. S. Geological Survey, in 1899. The next were by J. D. Stannard for the Idaho State Engineer and by Dils in 1902. Few measurements were made from 1903 to 1916. Somewhat more systematic measurements were made by the Geological Survey and by local agencies in 1917-20, 1923-25, and 1931, and at several intervals thereafter. In 1950 the Geological Survey began continuous, systematic measurements by installing and operating gaging stations on four representative springs and by making yearly direct measurements of all large springs. The recent records are not included in this report; they have been published yearly in a series of reports on stream discharge. The report includes lists of all published sources from which data were compiled, and cites many unpublished sources. The principal workers and agencies that have obtained records are listed also. The quality and accuracy of the compiled records, as might be expected, are not uniform, as the records were collected under varying circumstances, by many individuals, and according to changing or differing standards. The continuity is generally poor. Nevertheless, the compilation represents the base from which further work must start and is an extremely valuable record. It represents about 30 large springs and groups of springs, having discharge rates ranging from a fraction of a cubic foot per second to well over 1,000 cfs. Many smaller springs and seeps never have been measured. The fluctuation indexes for individual springs or groups range from 2 to 41 percent. The fluctuation index is the mean deviation of the discharge rate from the arithmetic mean, expressed as a percentage of the arithmetic mean. Although to some extent the indexes are a measure of the consistency of the record, they also seem to reflect actual differences in range of discharge, and they indicate that springs upstream in the Snake River valley fluctuate through a wider range than do those downstream. The fluctuations are rather slow, which reflects the equalizing influence of the large ground-water reservoir that supplies the springs.

Idaho↗
USGS1957

Feasibility of ground-water features of the alternate plan for the Mountain Home project, Idaho

An early plan of the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation proposed to irrigate 183,000 acres on the arid Snake River Plain south of Boise, Idaho (Mountain Home project) with Boise River water. That water would have been replaced to the Boise Valley with water imported from the Payette River. An alternate plan, proposed in 1953, would divert water from the Boise River to the plain; part of the water would be replaced by pumping ground water in the Boise valley and by importing water from the Snake River. Pumping of ground water in the Boise Valley also would help to drain waterlogged land. The present report evaluates the feasibility of the alternate plan in relation to geology and the occurrence and quality of ground water. The mean annual temperature at Boise is 50.8 ? F and there is an average of 172 days between killing frosts. The annual evaporation rate from open-water surfaces in the area is about 33 inches. Runoff in the Boise River is chiefly from precipitation on mountain slopes at altitudes above 3,000 feet, east of Boise Diversion Dam. The surface-water supply of the Boise Valley is more Than ample for the valley, owing to large upstream storage and regulatory dams and reservoirs. The valley also contains a large volume of ground water in storage, and the perennial rate of recharge is large. The computed consumptive depletion of surface water in the valley is nearly 600,000 acre-feet a year. Apparent depletion, computed from adjusted runoff at Notus, is 1,070,000 acre-feet. The difference of 470,000 acre-feet represents ground-water underflow and ungaged surface outflow from the area east of Notus. After the beginning of irrigation, around the turn of the century, the water table in the Boise Valley rose steadily; the amount of rise at some places was as much as 140 feet. Shallow perched zones of saturation were created locally. More than 100,000 acres of Boise Valley land now is waterlogged or threatened with waterlogging, despite the presence of more than 325 miles of surface drains. Successful operation of the alternate plan would depend, not only on providing adequate water to replace that exported from the Boise Valley, but also on satisfactory drainage of waterlogged land. That is, water management in the valley would have to couple economical pumping of irrigation water with effective drainage by pumping. The average of recorded yearly diversions from the Boise River is 1,280,000 acre-feet of live water (natural flow in a stream) and 201,000 acre-feet cf recycled water. Gross diversions of record in some recent single years of ample water supply reportedly exceeded 1,800,000 acre-feet. Ground water, on the other hand is used on a relatively small scale, yearly pumpage being only about 150,000 acre-feet. The feasibility of exporting 600,000 acre-feet of Boise River water would depend on the availability of replacement water in the Boise Valley and on the availability of the required surface water in the South Fork of the Boise River at the proposed point of diversion to the Mountain Home project. In 6 of the 20 years, 1931-50, recorded diversions of live and return water from th2 Boise River exceeded the live flow at the Boise Diversion Dam by 3,865 to 107,640 acre-feet. Moreover, although the average residual discharge in the river post Notus was 701,000 acre-feet, in most years some river reaches above Notus were dry at times, owing to diversion of all water from the river. Much of the flow past Notus is surface waste and effluent ground water, which averages about 422,000 acre-feet a year. The total of potential yearly ground water recharge in the Boise Valley, derived from precipitation, incoming underflow, and infiltration of irrigation water, is about 554,000 acre-feet in the feasible exchange-pumping area and areas tributary thereto. Identified and estimated consumptive depletion of ground water in the valley is about 230,000 acre-feet a year, but not all that depletion is within the exchange are

Water Supply Paper↗
USGS1955

Feasibility of ground-water features of the alternate plan for the Mountain Home Project, Idaho: abstract and summary

On the arid Mountain Home Plateau of Idaho more than 400,000 acres of arable land is largely unused except for grazing. The Boise Valley, adjoining on the north, was reclaimed from similar land and irrigated with Boise River water. The productivity of about 100,000 acres of the valley land is lowered or threatened, however, by an ever-rising water table, caused to rise by infiltration of excess irrigation water. Surface drains alleviate the drainage problem but areas of water-logging, alkaline land, and inferior vegetation continue to spread.

Idaho↗