Muskegon County, Mich., disposes of waste water by spray irrigating farmland on its waste-disposal site. Buried drains in the highly permeable unconfined aquifer at the site control the level of the water table. Hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer and drain leakance, the reciprocal of resistance to flow into the drains, was determined at a representative irrigation circle while calibrating a model of the ground-water flow system. Hydraulic conductivity is 0.00055 meter per second, in the north zone of the circle, and 0.00039 meter per second in the south zone. Drain leakance is low in both zones: 0.0000029 meter per second in the north and 0.0000095 meter per second in the south. Low drain leakance is responsible for waterlogging when irrigation rates are maintained at design levels. The capacity of the study circle to accept waste water has been reduced by more than 35 percent. (USGS)
RECORD ID: 8106101
F&G CODE: 05e
Publication
McDonald, M.G., 1981, Hydraulic characteristics of an under-drained irrigation
circle, Muskegon County wastewater disposal system, Michigan: U.S. Geological
Survey Water-Supply Paper 2081, 14 p.
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