Ambient well-bore mixing, aquifer cross-contamination, pumping stress, and water quality from long-screened wells: What is sampled and what is not?

Water quality tests were performed on two long-screened alluvial aquifer wells (15–30 m of screen) that had been completed in a heterogeneous aquifer that exhibits extreme temporal water quality variability. When stressed, the total dissolved solids (TDS) in one well decreased from 10,600 to 3,500 mg/L and in another well the TDS increased from 136 to 2,255 mg/L. Nested short-screened monitoring wells were constructed in chemically distinct horizons affecting each well. Water level measurements and solute and isotopic samples were obtained from the production wells and the monitoring wells during a water quality test. Results of a time drawdown tests demonstrate transmissivity differences between horizons. Ambient water quality in the production wells and aquifer cross-contamination are controlled by well-bore mixing due to head differences of as little as 0.01 m between chemically distinct horizons which are linked by the production well screen. During non-stress periods, the ambient well-bore chemistry is controlled by the horizon with the greatest hydraulic head, whereas during stressed conditions, horizon transmissivity controls the well-bore chemistry. In one well, aquifer cross-contamination, driven by an ambient head differential of 1.2 m, persisted until about 1,600 well-bore volumes were purged.