 |
2007 Ground Water Summit |
Monday, April 30, 2007
4:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
9:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
4:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Hydrologic Evaluation of Plugging Dinero Tunnel to Improve Water Quality in Lake Fork Creek, Leadville, Colorado
The Dinero Tunnel and
associated wetland complex of the Sugarloaf Mining District, three miles west
of This project is an
example of a useful approach to using ground-water models for site assessment
and evaluation of the impacts of bulkhead emplacement on regional water
quality. Field investigations to
determine current hydrologic conditions have been coupled with ground-water
models of the area to evaluate the potential hydrologic response of bulkhead
emplacement and the likelihood of negative outcomes. Because geologic data from this area is
limited, the ground-water model of the site allows for evaluation of
alternative hydrogeologic models of connectivity
between tunnels, faults and fractures of the system, and prediction of
hydrologic system behavior under various scenarios. In addition, the creation
and evaluation of alternative conceptual models can be used to evaluate the
most important parameters in each model as well as the type and location of
additional data that would be most useful in reducing parameter and associated
predictive uncertainty through sensitivity analysis. This approach of using ground-water models
to predict the potential hydrologic response of bulkhead emplacement can be
applied to develop and evaluate remediation strategies elsewhere as
draining-mine tunnels are an environmental concern in many areas of the nation.
Stephanie Eileen Ashley Schmidt, student, Colorado School of Mines Stephanie Schmidt an MS student in the Hydrologic Science and Engineering program at Colorado School of Mines. She received a BS in Geology from Brigham Young University in 2005. She plans to graduate in May of 2007 and pursue a career in environmental consulting.
Eileen Poeter, IGWMC Colorado School of Mines Eileen Poeter, Ph.D., is the 2006 Darcy lecturer. She is currently a professor of geological engineering at the Colorado School of Mines and director of the International Ground Water Modeling Center. Before entering academia, she worked for Golder Associates in the early 1980s and has continued to consult throughout her academic career. Poeter earned a B.S. in geology from Lehigh University in 1975, and an M.S. in 1978 and a Ph.D. in 1980 in engineering science from Washington State University. Her research focuses on parameter estimation and multimodel evaluation and she is part of the JUPITER (Joint Parameter IdenTification and Evaluation of Reliability) development team. JUPITER is an application-programming interface (API) intended to energize the science and technology of evaluating sensitivity, assessing data needs, estimating parameters, selecting/ranking models, and evaluating uncertainty. This API, and associated codes, are currently under development by the U.S. Geological Survey, in coordination with the Environmental Protection Agency to interface with their software modeling frameworks.