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Wait Plan and Time Schedule for Analyses of Background Groundwater Quality <br /> City of Stockton Regional Wastewater Control Facility <br /> Page 2 <br /> result in flow reversal. Flow reversal may also be caused in low water times by pumping at Tracy for <br /> Delta water export. The river stage elevations average approximately four (4) feet above sea level and <br /> range from one (1) to ten(10) feet above average stage during short rainy periods. The river is channeled <br /> behind levees which halt flood deposition of new material on surrounding farmland, and natural <br /> consolidation of the organic-rich former fluvial deposits has resulted in land subsidence. <br /> 4.0 HYDROGEOLOGY <br /> Much of the information presented in this section is summarized from the Report of Groundwater <br /> Conditions in the Vicinity of the City of Stockton Regional Wastewater Control Facility Oxidation Ponds <br /> prepared by Condor dated September 2006, and from the Groundwater Monitor Well Installation Report <br /> prepared by Geotechnical Consultants Inc. (GTC)in October 2004, contained in an Appendix therein. <br /> The RWCF facility is located near the San Joaquin Delta-river boundary. To the west are flat fine-grained <br /> fluvial delta deposits rich in organic matter and clay-rich flood plain deposits. To the east, fine-grained <br /> fluvial deposits grade to, and inter-finger with, distal alluvial fan deposits shed from the Sierra foothills. <br /> To the south,abandoned river or slough channels are evident on aerial photographs taken in the late 1940s <br /> (Appendix 6). Shallow groundwater occurs in the clay-rich flood plain deposits, which contain organic <br /> debris. Channel sands and natural levee sands isolated within fluvial clay and silt overbank deposits are <br /> indicated in the well logs prepared for monitoring well installation on-site. The gravelly clay encountered <br /> in the boring for MW-12, for example, likely is a buried stream channel. The sand and silt channel <br /> deposits are laterally discontinuous; however, the channel sand stringers may be continuous in the <br /> northerly direction of stream flow for a considerable distance. The flood plain aquifer has low <br /> transmissivity and storage. Water quality of the shallow background groundwater is poor, with naturally <br /> high salinity. The relatively high salinity may be attributed to any or all of the following: rising connate <br /> water from deep marine sediments, leaching soil salts and agricultural soil amendments by way of <br /> irrigation and precipitation,and encroaching saline tidal water. <br /> West of the SJR, the oxidation ponds and circulation ditches at the RWCF have surface water levels <br /> maintained higher than surrounding land surface. The average SJR stage is also higher than adjacent land. <br /> To the west the depth-to-water in the monitoring wells ranges from about three (3) feet to more than ten <br /> (10) feet. Thus, in general, the water elevations of the river and ponds create groundwater gradients <br /> toward the water table underlying surrounding lands. Monitoring well MW-15, located 1,700 feet south of <br /> the oxidation ponds (Figure 2), has been identified as an upgradient well, though groundwater at this <br /> location flows to agricultural drains south of the oxidation ponds. Inside the south and west facility <br /> boundaries groundwater gradients are controlled (flattened) by a system of groundwater interceptor <br /> ditches and subsurface drains that are pumped back to the treatment ponds. Groundwater gradients <br /> outside the interceptor system are controlled by a network of agricultural drainage canals and pumps <br /> operated by the West Bridge Irrigation District that discharge water to the SJR at the Bums Cutoff <br /> Pumping Station west of downgradient well MW-16 shown on Figure 5. There currently are no data on <br /> the water elevations in the constructed wetlands north of the oxidation ponds; however, recent well <br /> hydrographs of MW-8, MW-9, and MW-10 indicate gradients from the river to the wetlands occur in <br /> these reaches. Groundwater flowing westward from under the wetlands is either pumped back from the <br /> interceptor system or flows westward to the agricultural drains at the Butes Cutoff Pumping Station. <br /> Between Pond 1 and the river, water levels in monitoring wells MW-1 and MW-2 located on a flat area <br /> east of Pond 1 indicate a groundwater gradient toward the river from the ponds. Depths to groundwater in <br /> monitoring wells installed east of the river range from about ten(10)feet to more than 14 feet. Fast of the <br /> Sources of High-Chloride Water to Wells, Eastern San Joaquin Ground-Water Subbasin, California, USGS Open <br /> File Report 2006-1309. <br /> A <br /> �., CONDO <br />