Title: Saving for a (Not) Rainy Day: Modeling ASR in Provo, UT
Abstract:
The City of Provo, Utah has embarked on an aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) project to augment its existing groundwater supply for a growing population. Culinary water will be infiltrated or injected into the unconsolidated basin-fill aquifer at multiple locations in the City. Surface water from presently underutilized water rights on the Provo River will be used as a source for infiltration as well. Barr developed a groundwater flow model in MODFLOW 6 to simulate 10 years of future ASR system operation. Several new features in MODFLOW 6 - including groundwater flow exchange, water mover, and time-series input - were used to their full advantage to simulate the complex hydrogeologic system. Calibration of the model using PEST++ IES enabled the future simulations to be conducted for multiple parameter sets to better understand the uncertainty associated with the model forecasts. The modeling produced encouraging results for the future performance of the proposed ASR system
Bio:
Adam Janzen is a senior environmental engineer at Barr Engineering Company. He specializes in groundwater flow and solute transport modeling and applies these techniques to complex problems involving open-pit mine dewatering, lake level maintenance, contaminated site assessment and remediation, and water supply. He is currently collaborating with others in the field on a Managed Aquifer Recharge guidance document for the Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council. Adam is a 2008 graduate of the University of Illinois Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and also has a Master’s degree in Civil & Environmental Engineering from Princeton University.