Department of Civil Engineering and Geological Sciences
A62 Fitzpatrick Hall
Mailing Address: 156 Fitzpatrick Hall
Phone: (219) 631-5380 / 7216
Fax: (219) 631-9236
THE GROUNDWATER HYDROLOGY LABORATORY
The groundwater laboratory at the University of Notre Dame supports a variety of projects including laboratory, numerical and field research on groundwater hydrology.
The laboratory experiments are housed in B18 of Fitzpatrick Hall at the University of Notre Dame. This facility consists of a large staging area and sample prep area.
The labm is equipped with a Sony ccd camera to allow recording of all experiments, a Gateway pc for recording both these video images and for recording / controlling electronic data collection, a Sun Sparc5 for data manipulation and processing, and a number of pieces of support equipment for data analysis. The field experiments involve a number of different facets of groundwater and surface water hydrology. A field laboratory for undergraduate and graduate teaching is supported from the Fitzpatrick laboratory, in combination with a multiple acre field site on the Notre Dame campus, and a field staging facility. At present, the field laboratory is utilized in the groundwater hydrology courses as the focal point of the required laboratory. The field site currently contains 16 wells at depths ranging from 25 - 51 feet. The students in the groundwater course have complete control of the site, including sampling, drilling of new wells (up to 2 new wells per year), running of slug tests, monitoring the interaction of the groundwater with the creek which crosses the field site, etc. All wells at the site have been placed there by the student laboratories.
Interest in this field site is based both on the "hands-on" capability of the site and on multiple plumes of chloride which are observed at this site. The chloride is apparently derived from road salt applied to the nearby roads. However, straight forward analysis of the site is frustrated by apparent multiple lobes to the contamination plume. Students have been analyzing the site and following the plume for over five years.
This field site is also the subject of research efforts. In particular, substantial work has been performed on the creek which crosses this field site (Juday Creek). The majority of this work has been focused on the use of thermal signatures in characterizing and quantifying communication between groundwater and surface water. Papers and a thesis on this creek have been published (see below).
At present, there is hope to utilize this field site to monitor changes in groundwater quality associated with a change in land use. Proposed construction on this site would dramatically change the land use and lead, potentially, to a significant increase in irrigation and application of fertilizers to this land. The goal of the research would be to follow the impact of this land use change on groundwater chemistry, colloidal transport, and microbial populations.
Publications and reports based on this field site:
Silliman and Booth, 1993, "Analysis of time-series measurements of sediment temperature for identification of gaining vs. losing portions of Juday Creek, Indidana", Journal of Hydrology, 146, 131-148.
Silliman, Ramirez, and McCabe, 1995,"Quantifying downflow through creek sediments using temperature time series: One-dimensional solution incorporating measured surface temperature", Journal of Hydrology, 167, 99-119.
Carlsen, T.J., 1993, "Groudnwater and stream communication considering evapotranspiration-induced stage cycling effects at Juday Creek, Indiana, Masters Thesis, University of Notre Dame.
