On the long-term hydraulic gradient in the thick clayey aquitard in the Sarnia region, Ontario

Abstract

Much of the southwestern part of Ontario between Lake Huron and Lake Erie has a thin freshwater aquifer overlain by an aquitard of Late Pleistocene clayey glaciolacustrine deposits and underlain by a thick Devonian shale aquitard. In a large area east of the St. Clair River, where the Quaternary aquitard is 30-50 m thick, groundwater of Pleistocene origin (identified by 18O and 2H signature) occurs in the aquifer and in the bottom part of the Quaternary aquitard. Numerous piezometer nests in the aquitard show a downward hydraulic gradient with depth. In some areas, the aquitard has downward gradients only in the upper part and upward gradient in the lower part, indicating a transient condition. The piezometer nests in the clayey aquitard also show an increase in Cl- concentration with depth. Long-term piezometer monitoring at two sites show a major shift in the aquitard hydraulic gradient since 1983 and a large rise in head in the underlying aquifer. Analyses of initial aquifer water levels, reported in well drilling records, indicate a large decline in the potentiometric surface of the aquifer between the 1940's and the 1970's followed by a recent rise in the surface in part of the region. This pattern is consistent with well drilling and water use records indicating that 7000 wells were installed in the aquifer in the three decades since 1940 and that groundwater use has greatly diminished in the past 10-15 years due to rural pipeline distribution of lake and river water. The hydraulic gradient in the aquitard is slowly adjusting to the rise in the aquifer potentiometric surface. One-dimensional solute transport modelling provides close matches to the vertical profiles of Cl- migrating upward from the aquifer since deglaciation, 15 000 - 18 000 years before present, by diffusion with little or no advection. The lack of advection indicates a near-neutral long-term hydraulic gradient. As the withdrawal rate of water from the aquifer continues to decline, it is expected that the hydraulic head in the aquitard in much of the area westward of the recharge area will continue to adjust for many decades.Key words: clay, aquitard, aquifer, water use, hydraulic gradient.