Multiple-well monitoring site within the Poso Creek Oil Field, Kern County, California

Abstract

Introduction The Poso Creek Oil Field is one of the many fields selected for regional groundwater mapping and monitoring by the California State Water Resources Control Board as part of the Oil and Gas Regional Monitoring Program (RMP; California State Water Resources Control Board, 2015, 2022b; U.S. Geological Survey, 2022a). The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the California State Water Resources Control Board, is evaluating several questions about oil and gas development and groundwater resources in California, including (1) the location of groundwater resources; (2) the proximity of oil and gas operations to groundwater and the geologic materials between them; (3) evidence (or no evidence) of fluids from oil and gas sources in groundwater; and (4) the pathways or processes responsible when fluids from oil and gas sources are present in groundwater (U.S. Geological Survey, 2022a). As part of this evaluation, the USGS installed a multiple-well monitoring site within the administrative boundary of the Poso Creek Oil Field about 12 miles north of Bakersfield, California (fig. 1). Data collected at the Poso Creek multiple-well monitoring site (PCCT) provide information about the geology, hydrology, geophysical properties, and water quality of the aquifer system overlying the oil-bearing zone, thus enhancing understanding of relations between adjacent groundwater and the Poso Creek Oil Field in an area where groundwater data are limited, particularly at different depths in the aquifer. This report presents construction information for the PCCT and initial geohydrologic data collected from the site. Similar sites installed on the east side of the Lost Hills Oil Field and North and South Belridge Oil Fields were described by Everett and others (2020a, b).