Geology and water resources of Owens Valley, California

Abstract

Owens Valley, a long, narrow valley located along the east flank of the Sierra Nevada in east-central California, is the main source of water for the city of Los Angeles. The city diverts most of the surface water in the valley into the Owens River-Los Angeles Aqueduct system, which transports the water more than 200 miles south to areas of distribution and use. Additionally, ground water is pumped or flows from wells to supplement the surface-water diversions to the river-aqueduct system. Pumpage from wells needed to supplement water export has increased since 1970, when a second aqueduct was put into service, and local concerns have been expressed that the increased pumpage may have had a detrimental effect on the environment and the indigenous alkaline scrub and meadow plant communities in the valley. The scrub and meadow communities depend on soil moisture derived from precipitation and the unconfined part of a multilayered aquifer system. This report, which describes the hydrogeology of the aquifer system and the water resources of the valley, is one in a series designed to (1) evaluate the effects that ground-water pumping has on scrub and meadow communities and (2) appraise alternative strategies to mitigate any adverse effects caused by pumping. Two principal topographic features are the surface expression of the geologic framework--the high, prominent mountains on the east and west sides of the valley and the long, narrow intermountain valley floor. The mountains are composed of sedimentary, granitic, and metamorphic rocks, mantled in part by volcanic rocks as well as by glacial, talus, and fluvial deposits. The valley floor is underlain by valley fill that consists of unconsolidated to moderately consolidated alluvial fan, glacial and talus, and fluvial and lacustrine deposits. The valley fill also includes interlayered recent volcanic flows and pyroclastic rocks. The bedrock surface beneath the valley fill is a narrow, steep-sided graben that is structurally separated into the Bishop Basin to the north and the Owens Lake Basin to the south. These two structural basins are separated by (1) a bedrock high that is the upper bedrock block of an east-west normal fault, (2) a horst block of bedrock (the Poverty Hills), and (3) Quaternary basalt flows and cinder cones that intercalate and intrude the sedimentary deposits of the valley fill. The resulting structural separation of the basins allowed separate development of fluvial and lacustrine depositional systems in each basin. Nearly all the ground water in Owens Valley flows through and is stored in the saturated valley fill. The bedrock, which surrounds and underlies the valley fill, is virtually impermeable. Three hydrogeologic units compose the valley-fill aquifer system, a defined subdivision of the ground-water system, and a fourth represents the valley fill below the aquifer system and above the bedrock. The aquifer system is divided into horizontal hydrogeologic units on the basis of either (1) uniform hydrologic characteristics of a specific lithologic layer or (2) distribution of the vertical hydraulic head. Hydrogeologic unit 1 is the upper unit and represents the unconfined part of the system, hydrogeologic unit 2 represents the confining unit (or units), and hydrogeologic unit 3 represents the confined part of the aquifer system. Hydrogeologic unit 4 represents the deep part of the ground-water system and lies below the aquifer system. Hydrogeologic unit 4 transmits or stores much less water than hydrogeologic unit 3 and represents either a moderately consolidated valley fill or a geologic unit in the valley fill defined on the basis of geophysical data. Nearly all the recharge to the aquifer system is from infiltration of runoff from snowmelt and rainfall on the Sierra Nevada. In contrast, little recharge occurs to the system by runoff from the White and Inyo Mountains or from direct precipitation on the valley floor. Ground water flows from the margins of the valley towards the center of the valley; the ground water then flows south to the terminus of the system at Owens (dry) Lake. Ground water flows south from Bishop Basin to Owens Lake Basin through the narrows that constrict the flow opposite Poverty Hills. The aquifer system in the northern half of Owens Lake Basin is divided into east and west halves by the barrier effect caused by the Owens Valley fault. Discharge from the aquifer system is primarily by pumpage and evapotranspiration, and to a lesser extent by flowing wells, springs, underflow, and leakage to the Owens River-Los Angeles aqueduct system. Withdrawals from pumped or flowing wells is the largest component of discharge and accounts for about 50 percent of the outflow from the system. Transpiration by scrub and meadow plant communities, and to a lesser extent by irrigated alfalfa pasture, accounts for about 40 percent of the system's discharge. Natural hydraulic conductivity ranges from less than 400 to about 12,000 feet per day in the basalt flows, the more permeable material in the aquifer system. Where the basalts are fractured by explosives and drilling techniques, actual transmissivities can be greater than 1,000,000 feet squared per day. Hydraulic conductivities in sedimentary deposits of the aquifer system range from less than a few feet per day in lacustrine clays to more than 300 feet per day in gravel stringers and beach deposits in the transition zone between alluvial fan deposits and fluvial and lacustrine deposits. Degree of confinement in the aquifer system generally increases to the south and east in both the Bishop and Owens Lake Basins. The vertical hydraulic gradient across hydrogeologic unit 2 and confining beds in hydrogeologic units 1 and 3 is a function of (1) the asymmetric recharge and hydraulic head created by the dominant recharge from Sierra Nevada runoff and (2) the areal extent and thickness of the confining beds. Although most of the pumpage is from hydrogeologic unit 3, some coincident drawdown has been recorded in nonpumped wells that tap unit 1. Drawdown in hydrogeologic unit 1 is a function of changes in (1) lateral flow through hydrogeologic unit 1, (2) upward flow of ground water through the confining beds, (3) downward leakage of water from hydrogeologic unit 1 to unit 3 through wells, (4) direct withdrawal from well intervals open to hydrogeologic unit 1, and (5) increased evapotranspiration. The water in the aquifer system is generally of excellent quality for public supply and irrigation, with the exception of water stored in thick sequences of lacustrine silts and clays near Owens Lake. The water is principally a calcium bicarbonate type and dissolved-solids concentrations range from approximately 104 to 325 milligrams per liter. Water in the lacustrine sediments of Owens (dry) Lake is a sodium bicarbonate type and dissolved-solids concentrations are about 5,400 milligrams per liter.