Ground-water outflow, San Timoteo-Smiley Heights area, upper Santa Ana Valley, southern California, 1927 through 1968

Abstract

The San Timoteo-Smiley Heights area is in the upper Santa Ana Valley, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, Calif., where the Yucaipa and San Timoteo-Beaumont ground-water basins border Bunker .Hill basin on the south between the San Jacinto and San Andreas faults. The area is broken by numerous faults, the topography is rough, and in a large part of the area few wells had been drilled prior to 196S. The alluvial deposits, which constitute the aquifers in the area, range in thickness from 0 where they lap onto exposed bedrock hills to about 1,000 feet. Beneath the southern part of the area near the San Jacinto fault the total thickness of alluvial and lacustrine deposits may be as much as 6,000 feet. The purpose of this study was to estimate ground-water outflow by an indirect method not involving balancing of the hydrologic budget. For this purpose it was necessary to estimate the permeability of the aquifer materials, the average annual hydraulic gradient, and the cross-sectional area through which the flow occurs; these values were estimated for five segments along a line of section between the San Jacinto fault and Crafton Hills. To provide data for the outflow estimates, several miles of reflection and refraction seismic traverses were made along and across the outflow section. Nineteen deep and shallow test holes were drilled; one of the deep test holes and several existing wells were pumped to obtain data on aquifer permeability. The estimated average permeabilities of the aquifer materials range from 5 gallons per day per square foot for the lower part of the San Timoteo beds of Frick (1921) and 40 gallons per day per square foot for the older alluvium to 220 gallons per day per square foot for the upper part of the San Timoteo beds. The estimated outflow in 1927 was 8,150 acre-feet. By 1967 the estimated total outflow was 5,350 acre-feet, a reduction of approximately 34 percent. During the 12-year period 1956 through 1967, however, the annual outflow decline has been considerably less than the average for the 41-year period 1927 through 1967, and the decline as of 1968 was probably about 30-35 acre-feet per year.