The City of Albuquerque Public Works Department, Water Resources
Management (City), is interested in quantifying aquifer hydraulic
properties in the Albuquerque, New Mexico, area to better understand
and manage water resources in the Middle Rio Grande Basin. In 1998,
the City and the U.S. Geological Survey entered into a cooperative
program to determine hydraulic properties of aquifer material
adjacent to screened intervals of piezometers in the Albuquerque
area.
Investigators conducted slug tests from March 8 through April
8, 1999, to estimate hydraulic conductivity of aquifer material
adjacent to the screened intervals of 25 piezometers from 11 nested-
piezometer sites in the Albuquerque area. At 20 of the
piezometers, slug-test responses were typical; at 2 piezometers,
tests were prematurely terminated because the tests were taking too
long to complete; and at 3 piezometers, test responses were
oscillatory. Methods used to estimate hydraulic conductivity
were the Bouwer and Rice method or the Cooper, Bredehoeft, and
Papadopulos method for most tests; the Shapiro and Greene method for
prematurely terminated tests; and the van der Kamp method for
oscillatory tests.
Hydraulic-conductivity estimates ranged from about 0.15
to 92 feet per day. In general, the smaller estimated values are
associated with fine-grained aquifer materials and the larger
estimated hydraulic-conductivity values are associated with coarse-
grained aquifer materials adjacent to the screened intervals of the
piezometers. Hydraulic-conductivity estimates ranged from
0.15 to 8.2 feet per day for aquifer materials adjacent to the
screened intervals at 12 piezometers and from 12 to 41 feet
per day for aquifer materials adjacent to the screened intervals
at 10 piezometers. Hydraulic-conductivity estimates at four
piezometers were greater than 41 feet per day.
