Chemistry of Wells

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Chemistry of Wells Springs at Sevilleta
National Wildlife Refuge

• Evaluating Current Water Quality and Composition

Christine A. Waters REU Student 2008 Mentors Dr.
Laura Crossey Amy Williams University of Texas
at El Paso
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Why Study Ground Water at Sevilleta?
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Previous Water Work

• 1955 Spiegal, Z. Geology groundwater
  resources of
• northeastern Socorro County, New
  Mexico
• 1991 Roybel, F. Groundwater resources of
  Socorro County,
• New Mexico
• 2003 Rawling, G. Geology hydrologic setting
  of springs
• seeps

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Questions

• What is the chemistry of the waters on the
  refuge?
• What is the effect of monsoon rains on the
  chemistry of spring water sources?
• How do we characterize waters in different
  regions of the Sevilleta?
• Is there evidence of influence by interactions
  with the local geology?
• How do chemistries across the refuge compare with
  one another?

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Sampling Sites
Goat Draw Well
Bronco Well
Nunn Well
FWS Field Station Wells
McKenzie Well
Canyon Well
Esquival Well
Silver Creek Spring
San Acacia Brine Pool
Gibbs Well
West Mesa Well
Canyon del Ojito Spring
Tomasino Well
San Lorenzo Springs 1 2
Cibola Springs

• 17 Sites Total
• 8 West, 2 Central, 7 East

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Geology of the Study Area
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San Lorenzo Spring
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Cibola Spring
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Silver Creek Spring
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Well Works
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Eastern Wells
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Western Wells
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Methods
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Ion Analysis
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Results
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Spatial Distribution of Water Chemistries
Calculated Chloride, Sulfate,
Bicarbonate from all known Sevilleta sites since
1991 Used inverse distance weighted
interpolation tool from ArcGIS Spatial Analyst
Extra Points from Bexfield, 2004 Roybel, 1991.
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Results
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Results
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Nutrients
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Canyon del Ojito Spring
Im down here!
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Future Research

• Microbiology
• Chloride/Bromide ratios
• Arsenic Levels
• Temporal Changes/Trends

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Thanks
Amy Williams Dr. Laura Crossey

• All the REU student busters
• (esp. Emerson Tuttle, Dan Coleman,
• Natalie Alberg welldiver extraordinaire!)