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Ottawa County Water Resources Study –

Phase‐2Overview

David P. Lusch, Ph.D.Department of Geography

andInstitute of Water ResearchMichigan State University

Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2

Ottawa County Planning and Performance Improvement developed a detailed list of water resource information needs that could inform the decision makers of the county about the sustainability of the groundwater throughout the county.

The Phase‐2 study has 4 Goals based on these information needs.

4 Goals are specific to Ottawa County

3 other Goals focus on the regional lowlands of Southern Michigan

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Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2 Goals specific to Ottawa County Goal 1: Quantify the current sustainability of groundwater 

quantity in the glacial and bedrock aquifers of the county. 

Goal 2: Quantify the current sustainability of the aquifers of the county based on chloride concentrations.

Goal 3: Estimate the future sustainability of the glacial and bedrock aquifers of the county based on projected water quantity and chloride concentrations at 5, 10 and 20 years into the future.

Goal 4: Develop and recommend best practices, policies and/or other solutions to address and mitigate any likely groundwater shortages or problematic chloride concentrations that are documented in Ottawa County.  

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Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2 The Phase‐2 study will use state‐of‐the‐art modeling 

software that has been developed at MSU

PAWS – Process‐based Adaptive Watershed Simulator

IGW – Interactive GroundWater

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Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2

Two‐model Project Methodology

PAWS model for recharge and surface water budget.

IGWmodel for estimating groundwater flow and 3D chloride concentration distribution.

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Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2

Inputs to the PAWS Model

Topography Stream Network, Ponds Land Use /Land Cover Soils Climate Data Streamflows Return flows

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Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2

Topography (Ottawa Co. LiDAR DEM)

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Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2

Stream Network, Ponds (National Hydrography Dataset)

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Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2

Land Use /Land Cover (Ottawa County Impervious map / USDA CDL / USGS NLCD)

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Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2

Soils (NRCS SSURGO)

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(micrometers per second)

Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2

Precipitation Data (NCDC NEXRAD radar hourly precipitation accumulations for 2013)

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Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2

Streamflows (USGS + subset of field measurements)

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Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2

Return flowsDischarge from WWTS (Ottawa County Road Commission Public 

Utilities)

Return flow from household septic systems will be incorporated using generalized, published estimates of household water use and maps of non‐sewered residential areas provided by Ottawa County. 

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Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2

Calibration data for the PAWS Model

Streamflows / Baseflows (Measured from 50 - 60 stream segments)

Groundwater Heads (GVSU wells; USGS RASA /MDEQ test wells; MDEQ monitoring wells at sites of environmental concern)

Model cell resolution will be 300 m x 300 m (~ 22 acres).14 / 24

Glacial‐RASARock/Deep

Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2

Outputs from the PAWS Model

Recharge to the water‐table aquifer (input to IGW)

Water Balance of the Glacial Aquifer

Detailed maps of: Evapotranspiration (ET)

Infiltration

Runoff

Recharge

Streamflows

Soil Moisture

Depth to the water table

Spatial resolution of outputs for management support is1000 m x 1000 m (about 250 acres)

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Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2

IGW – Interactive Ground Water

An integrated groundwater modeling suite utilizing a powerful parallel computing methodology with computational steering and interactive visualization to provide dynamic groundwaterflow modeling. 

IGW supports interactive, hierarchical, multi‐scale groundwater flow modeling.

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Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2

Inputs to IGW 3D Hydraulic Conductivity (transition probability model) Bedrock framework (MDEQ GWIM database + USGS RASA

reports)

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Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2

Inputs to IGW

Stream network (National Hydrology Database)

Lakes/ponds (from Michigan Geographic Framework)

Digital elevation model (LiDAR from Ottawa County GIS)

Recharge (from PAWS model)

Water use (from MDEQ / MDARD Water Use Program)

Initial Cl concentrations (water samples from volunteerhomeowners + some Ottawa County Health Department data)

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Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2

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Ottawa County Phase II Water Resource Study

Chloride Sampling Volunteer Locations

(09/12/2014)

254 volunteer sites• 99 shallow glacial aquifer• 22 deep glacial aquifer• 133 bedrock aquifer

Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2

Calibration Data for IGW Baseflow, synoptic (from streamflow measurements on all stream 

segments)

Baseflow, time series (12 monthly streamflow measurements on 15 streams)

Static water levels (GVSU wells, MDEQ monitoring wells and aquifer tests, USGS RASA data)

Static water level and Cl concentration time series (from the single test well and two monitoring wells (4 day pumping stress period; 2 week recovery period)

Model cell resolution will be 300 m x 300 m (~ 22 acres).

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Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2 Outputs from IGW

Aquifer Depth and Thickness Maps and 3D Graphics

Static Water Level Maps and 3D Graphics

Glacial and Bedrock Aquifer Groundwater Flow Maps

Groundwater Discharge to Streams Map

Current Water Quantity Severity Rating Map(s)

Chloride Depth Map(s) and 3D Graphic(s) 

Chloride Concentration Map(s)

Chloride Migration Analysis Results

Current Chloride Severity Rating Map(s)

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Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2 Outputs from IGW

Maps of Projected Change in Groundwater Quantity at 5, 10, and 20 years

Maps of Projected Change in Chloride at 5, 10, and 20 years

Projected Groundwater Quantity Severity Rating Map(s) at 5, 10, and 20 years

Chloride Rating Maps at 5, 10, and 20 years

Spatial resolution of outputs for management support will be 1000 m x 1000 m (about 250 acres)

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Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2Milestones & Timeline 2014

• Sept - Oct: Countywide Water Sampling (Cl levels from 500 wells)• Sept - Oct: Streamflow Measurements (80+ streams)• Oct - Nov: Recovery of SWL data from MDEQ monitoring wells• Oct - Nov: Bedrock Aquifer Pumping Test

2015• Jun: Countywide Recharge Modeling completed• Aug: Statewide Groundwater Assessment completed

2016• Mar: Countywide Groundwater Quantity Modeling completed• Sept: Countywide Groundwater Chloride Modeling completed• Dec: Future Sustainability Modeling completed

2017• Jun: “Hotspot” Quantity & Quality Modeling completed• Jun - Jul: Revised Web-based DSS completed / training offered• Aug: Final Report completed 23 / 24

Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2 Interactive Water Resource Decision Support System

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Partnership List

Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2

Groundwater Task Force Members

Ottawa County Water Resources Study – Phase‐2

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Ottawa County Water Resources Study –

Phase‐2Overview