2007 Ground Water Summit

Monday, April 30, 2007 : 2:00 p.m.

Wells Online: Internet Access to Ground Water and Wells Data in the Central and West Coast Basins, Los Angeles County, California

Theodore A. Johnson, PG, CHG and Jason Weeks, Water Replenishment District of Southern California

Groundwater comprises a third of the water supply in 43 cities contained within the Central and West Coast Basins of Los Angeles County, California.  Up to 281,835 acre feet per year is pumped out of sandy aquifers from nearly 500 production wells located throughout the basins.  The Water Replenishment District of Southern California (WRD) manages this groundwater supply through artificial replenishment programs, freshwater injection at barrier wells to halt salt water intrusion, running a regional groundwater monitoring program, and testing for water quality constituents.

 These management efforts generate large amounts of data, including water levels, water quality, pumping amounts, and well construction information that need to be readily accessible to District staff and other agencies, groundwater pumpers, consultants, academia, and the general public.  To facilitate this access, WRD developed “Wells Online”, which is an ArcIMS application that allows easy internet access to maps, well locations, water level hydrographs, water quality results and graphs, well construction information, and acre feet of pumping for each well.  Security levels are assigned at user log-in to establish accessibility to sensitive information, such as precise well locations or construction information, which are confidential in California.  However, all public domain information is available to all users.  Implementation of this tool has not only made access to information easier for staff and the public, but has also considerably freed up staff time from processing data requests.  The site can be accessed at http://gis.wrd.org.

Theodore A. Johnson, PG, CHG, Water Replenishment District of Southern California Ted Johnson is the Chief Hydrogeologist at the Water Replenishment District of Southern California. He leads the Basin Management and Water Quality Department, providing technical analysis, review, and oversight for projects related to artificial recharge, seawater intrusion, groundwater quality, conjunctive use, computer modeling, recycled water, tracer tests, and groundwater production. Ted received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the California State University at Fullerton and is a California Professional Geologist and Certified Hydrogeologist with over 20 years of experience in Southern California groundwater investigations.


The 2007 Ground Water Summit