Dennis William Risser (Former Employee)

This report provides a November 2010 snapshot of groundwater quality and an analysis of the sources of water to wells at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Northern Appalachian Research Laboratory (NARL) near Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. The laboratory, which conducts fisheries research, currently (2011) withdraws 1,000 gallons per minute of high-quality groundwater from three wells completed...

Groundwater recharge is water that infiltrates through the subsurface to the zone of saturation beneath the water table. Because recharge is a difficult parameter to quantify, it is typically estimated from measurements of other parameters like streamflow and precipitation. This report provides a general overview of processes affecting recharge in Pennsylvania and presents estimates of...

This report by the U.S. Geological Survey, prepared in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Mining and Reclamation, evaluates factors affecting the application of specific-capacity tests in six low-yielding water wells in areas of coal mining or quarrying in Pennsylvania. Factors such as pumping rate, duration of pumping, aquifer properties...

The common recommendation that recharge should be estimated from multiple methods is sound, but the inherent differences of the methods make it difficult to assess the accuracy of differing results. In this study, four methods for estimating groundwater recharge and two methods for estimating base flow (as a proxy for recharge) are compared at two hydrologic research sites in east...

A method was developed for making estimates of long-term, mean annual ground-water recharge from streamflow data at 80 streamflow-gaging stations in Pennsylvania. The method relates mean annual base-flow yield derived from the streamflow data (as a proxy for recharge) to the climatic, geologic, hydrologic, and physiographic characteristics of the basins (basin characteristics) by use of...

This report presents the results of a study by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Geological Survey, to illustrate a water-budget method for mapping the spatial distribution of ground-water recharge for a 76-square-mile part of the Jordan Creek watershed, northwest of Allentown, in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Recharge was estimated by using the Hydrological

Increased demands on water resources by a growing population and recent droughts have raised awareness about the adequacy of ground-water resources in humid areas of the United States. The spatial and temporal variability of ground-water recharge are key factors that need to be quantified to determine the sustainability of ground-water resources. Ground-water recharge is defined herein...

Lysimeter-percolate and well-hydrograph analyses were combined to evaluate recharge for the Masser Recharge Site (central Pennsylvania, USA). In humid regions, aquifer recharge through an unconfined low-porosity fractured-rock aquifer can cause large magnitude water-table fluctuations over short time scales. The unsaturated hydraulic characteristics of the subsurface porous media control...

This report, prepared in cooperation with the Department of Environmental Protection, Office of Mineral Resources Management, provides a preliminary analysis of water budgets and generalized ground-water/surface-water interactions for Bushkill and parts of Monocacy Creek watersheds in Northampton County, Pa., by use of a ground-water flow model. Bushkill Creek watershed was selected for...

This study, completed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Topographic and Geologic Survey (T&GS), provides estimates of ground-water recharge for watersheds throughout Pennsylvania computed by use of two automated streamflow-hydrograph-analysis methods--PART and RORA. The PART computer...

This report describes the results of a study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of Topographic and Geologic Survey, to determine drought-sensitive aquifer settings in southeastern Pennsylvania. Because all or parts of southeastern Pennsylvania have been in drought-warning or drought...

This study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), U.S. Department of Agriculture, compared multiple methods for estimating ground-water recharge and base flow (as a proxy for recharge) at sites in east-central Pennsylvania underlain by fractured bedrock and representative of a humid-continental climate. This study was one of...