Hydrology of the uppermost Cretaceous and the lowermost Paleocene rocks in the Hilight oil field, Campbell County, Wyoming

The lithologic equivalents of the Fox Hills Sandstone, Lance Formation, and the Tullock member of the Fort Union Formation, as mapped on the east side of the Powder River Basin, can be recognized throughout the basin; however, the formations are in hydraulic connection and cannot be treated as separate aquifers.

Recharge to the Lance-Fox Hills aquifer in the Hilight oil field is largely by vertical movement; there is no recharge from the Lance and Fox Hills outcrops on the east side of the basin to the formations in the Hilight area.

At the and of the central Hilight water-flood project, the maximum possible drawdown resulting from the pumping of any one well at a distance of l0 miles from the pumped well, would be about 15 feet, if the projected pumping were evenly distributed among the project wells.

Within a few years after pumping has ceased, water in the project wells will approach the levels present before pumping began. The only irreversible effect of pumping will be the compaction of shale, with attendant subsidence, because the water derived from the shale probably will not be replaced.