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Educational Series 3
THE GEOLOGY OF
PENNSYLVANIA’S
GROUNDWATER
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES
OFFICE OF CONSERVATION AND ENGINEERING SERVICES
BUREAU OF TOPOGRAPHIC AND GEOLOGIC SURVEY
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA
Edward G. Rendell , Governor
DEPARTMENT OF
CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES
Michael DiBerardinis, Secretary
OFFICE OF CONSERVATION AND ENGINEERING SERVICES
Larry G. Williamson , Deputy Secretary
BUREAU OF TOPOGRAPHIC AND GEOLOGIC SURVEY
Jay B. Parrish, Director
Educational Series 3
THE GEOLOGY OF
PENNSYLVANIA’S
by Gary M. Fleeger
PENNSYLVANIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
FOURTH SERIES
HARRISBURG
1999
When reproducing material from this book, please cite the source
as follows:
Reeger, G. M., 1999, The geology of Pennsylvania’s groundwater (3rd ed.): Pennsylvania Geological Survey, 4th ser.,
Educational Series 3, 34 p.
Pennsylvania web site: www.state.pa.us
Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
web site: www.dcnr.state.pa.us
Bureau of Topographic and Geologic Survey
web site: www.dcnr.state.pa.us/topogeo
Illustrations drafted by James H. Dolimpio
First Edition, April 1962
Second Edition, January 1971
Third Printing, May 1978
Third Edition, December 1999
Second Printing, April 2005
THE GEOLOGY OF
PENNSYLVANIA’S GROUNDWATER
by Gary M. Fleeger
What is groundwater?
Water is present almost everywhere in, on, and above the earth. We
can readily see surface water, such as oceans, lakes, and rivers, and
atmospheric water, such as clouds, fog, and precipitation. What we cannot normally see is groundwater, which is found below the surface of
the earth.
Of all of the earth’s water, we are able
to drink only the 0.5 percent that is fresh
water. The rest is salt water, which contains too much dissolved salt and other minerals to be drinkable. Fresh water is abundant
in Pennsylvania, which has more miles of
streams per square mile of area than most
other states. All of the water that we can see,
however, is just a fraction of the fresh water
available in the state. There is a lot more
Salt water
Fresh water
fresh water under the ground than on the
Amount of salt water com- ground in Pennsylvania.
pared to amount of fresh
Just about anywhere in Pennsylvania,
water.
salt water can be found beneath fresh groundwater at depths ranging from about 200 feet to over 1,000 feet. This salty
groundwater, called brine, contains much more salt than seawater. Brine
has probably been under the ground since the rocks were formed hundreds of millions of years ago. Because we use mainly fresh groundwater,
we will focus on fresh groundwater in this book.
Every day, groundwater is taken from wells and springs to meet our
household, agricultural, and industrial needs. Unfortunately, we cannot always find enough groundwater for a particular need, and sometimes the
groundwater we find cannot be used because of its quality. To avoid these
problems as much as possible, we need to understand some basic concepts
about groundwater, specifically about groundwater in Pennsylvania.
The geology and landscape of Pennsylvania vary, and the variations
affect the movement and quality of groundwater. Throughout this book,
1
2
THE GEOLOGY OF PENNSYLVANIA’S GROUNDWATER
we will relate basic concepts of groundwater flow and development to
the different rock types and landscapes of Pennsylvania. We will start by
reviewing our need for groundwater. Then we will look at groundwater
from a large scale (the movement of water from the atmosphere, to the
land surface, underground, and back to the atmosphere) to a more detailed
scale (how water is stored in and flows under the ground). We will learn
what effects human activity has on groundwater in Pennsylvania. Finally,
we will discuss the ways in which Pennsylvanians obtain groundwater.
How much groundwater do we have?
Most people are surprised to
learn that almost all of the world’s
unfrozen fresh water exists under
the ground. Pennsylvania, having a
humid climate, has a lot of water in
streams, lakes, and wetlands. But
Pennsylvania has much more fresh
groundwater than surface water—
more than thirty times as much.
Pumping all of Pennsylvania’s fresh
groundwater onto the surface would
cover the entire state with more than
8 feet of water!
Fresh
groundwater
100 inches
(80 trillion gallons)
Surface water—3 inches (2.5 trillion gallons)
Who uses groundwater?
All Pennsylvanians ultimately depend on groundwater for drinking water. Public water companies use wells and springs to supply
almost one million Pennsylvania households with at least part of
their water. Add to that almost one million homes that use private
wells and springs, and about half of Pennsylvania’s 12 million residents
get at least part of their drinking water directly from groundwater. Nationally, Pennsylvania ranks second (after Michigan) for total number of
wells, second (after Michigan) for number of household wells, and third
(after Wisconsin and New York) for number of public-water-supply wells.
Perhaps you are one of the 6 million Pennsylvanians whose drinking water is provided by a public supplier who uses only water from streams
3
WHO USES GROUNDWATER?
and lakes. You would have little reason to be concerned about groundwater. Right? You may be surprised to find out that most of your water
also comes from groundwater. Groundwater provides two thirds of the
water to our streams, lakes, and wetlands. As a result, what we do to the
groundwater affects the quality of our surface water. It does not matter
if you get your water from a well, spring, river, or lake—you still depend
on groundwater.
1,150,000
Public-supply
wells
1,100,000
Household
wells
NUMBER OF WELLS
1,050,000
1,000,000
950,000
900,000
850,000
800,000
750,000
700,000
650,000
MI
PA
NC
NY
FL
STATE
OH
WI
Top seven states in terms of water-supply wells.
In addition to 30 percent (568 mgal/d (million gallons of water per day))
of Pennsylvania’s domestic water use, groundwater contributes 74 percent
(50 mgal/d) of the water used for agriculture, 10 percent (180 mgal/d) of
the water used for industry, 84 percent (210 mgal/d) of the water used for
mining, and 58 percent (14 mgal/d) of the water used for commercial
purposes. In all, Pennsylvanians use over 1 billion gallons of groundwater
per day. This is equivalent to the amount of water in the second largest
natural lake in Pennsylvania, Lake Canadohta in Crawford County.
4
THE GEOLOGY OF PENNSYLVANIA’S GROUNDWATER
SCALE
0
50 MI
0
80 KM
10
73
92
95
83
15
10
97
98
52
4
36
41
27
48
40
42
78
77
78
5
35
36
94
97
38
4
25
65
73
33
78
71
77
22
87
25
36
17
46
16 79
9
9
95
77
29
83
77
78
76
35
8
47
7
75
81
77
93
96
46
81
63
27
44
30
O
EXPLANATION
\
\
0
I______
I
I
5
/
5
I
10 KILOMETERS
SUMMIT
Figure 3. Selected hazardous-waste sites with ground-water contamination in Erie County, Pennsylvania. (Site locations are listed in table 2.)
FAIRVIEW
MILLCREEK
HAZARDOUS-WASTE SITE AND IDENTIFICATION NUMBER
80°30′
5
0
5*
(0
», greater than]
Line of
section
BB-BB1
Estimated depth to
bedrock from
interpretation of seismicreflection data
(feet)
Estimated depth to bedrock
at line of section interpreted
from either drillers logs of
nearby water wells or test
well drilled on line of section
(feet)
CC-CC
DD-DD1
126
116
55
132
108
>52
GG-GG’
173
>144
HH-HH’
135
110
12
Remarks
Test well Er-8545 drilled on line of section BB-BB1
Test well Er-9563 drilled on line of section CC-CC
Test well Er-9562 drilled on line of section DD-DD’ to a
depth of 52 feet but did not reach bedrock
Test well Er- 10525 drilled on line of section GG-GG’ to
a depth of 144 feet but did not reach bedrock.
Depth to bedrock of 1 10 feet estimated from bedrock
depths reported from four water wells wi*hin 1,200 feet
of line of section.
Geohydrology and Water Quality of the Unconsolidated Deposits in Erie County, Pennsylvania
precipitation was similar to the long-term normal with
1988 having slightly less precipitation and 1987 having
slightly more precipitation. Annual precipitation at the
airport was always lower than at the other two stations.
Table 5. Annual precipitation at three sites in Erie County,
Pennsylvania
[Sites are shown in figure 6]
Precipitation, in inches1
Site
1987
1988
1989
30-year mean
annual
precipitation,
(1961-90)2
Erie airport
44.86
38.87
41.88
…