Treatment of the Chicot and Evangeline aquifers as a single hydrogeologic unit and use of geostatistical interpolation methods to develop gridded surfaces of water-level altitudes and water-level changes in the Chicot and Evangeline aquifers (undifferentiated) and Jasper aquifer, greater Houston area, Texas, 2021
The greater Houston area of Texas includes approximately 11,000 square miles and encompasses all or part of 11 counties (Harris, Galveston, Fort Bend, Montgomery, Brazoria, Chambers, Grimes, Liberty, San Jacinto, Walker, and Waller). From the early 1900s until the mid-1970s, groundwater withdrawn from the three primary aquifers that compose the Gulf Coast aquifer system—the Chicot, Evangeline, and Jasper aquifers—had been the primary source of water for the greater Houston area. The withdrawal of groundwater was unregulated prior to 1975, resulting in land-surface subsidence caused by large water-level declines in the greater Houston area. This report, prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey in cooperation with the Harris-Galveston Subsidence District, City of Houston, Fort Bend Subsidence District, Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District, and Brazoria County Groundwater Conservation District, describes updates to the ways in which water-level altitudes and water-level changes in the greater Houston area are presented relative to previous U.S. Geological Survey reports. The first update involves presenting water-level altitudes and water-level changes as a combined (undifferentiated) representation of the Chicot and Evangeline aquifers. The second update concerns the methods used to depict water-level altitudes and water-level changes in the greater Houston area in interpretive reports, with geostatistical interpolation methods replacing manual contouring methods. The Chicot and Evangeline aquifers have historically been described as distinct hydrogeologic units for the purpose of water-level mapping. A confining unit does not separate these two aquifers in the study area, and water-level data from colocated wells screened in these aquifers indicate that there is likely a substantial degree of hydrogeologic connection. From a groundwater-flow perspective, these two aquifer units predominantly function as a single unit. Hence, the decision was made to combine the Chicot and Evangeline aquifers into a single, undifferentiated hydrogeologic unit for the purposes of assessing water-level altitudes and water-level changes over time. The 2020 water-level altitudes for the Chicot, Evangeline, and Jasper aquifers were re-created in this report from computer algorithms of the contoured datasets as gridded surfaces to demonstrate the similarity of results from geostatistical interpolation methods to those from manual contouring methods.