Maryland Department of Natural Resources

Effects of Projected Increases in Groundwater Withdrawals by Anne Arundel County Public Supply Wells on Management Water Levels and its Potential Impact on Domestic Wells Screened in the Lower Patapsco Aquifer System in North-Central Anne Arundel County, Maryland

Project Details

Anne Arundel County Department of Public Works (AADPW) is in the process of developing a Comprehensive Water Strategic Plan (CWSP) to guide the sustainable use of their groundwater withdrawals from the Patapsco (Upper and Lower) and Patuxent aquifer systems for the coming decades. To help assess the potential impacts of projected increases in withdrawals identified in the plan, an analysis of the effects of pumping relative to management water levels (80% management levels) and to private domestic wells is needed. A 2007 modeling study by the Maryland Geological Survey (Andreasen, 2007) indicated that projected (2044) withdrawals contained in the 2003 Comprehensive Water Strategic Plan (O’Brien and Gere, Inc. 2003) would not cause groundwater levels to exceed management levels in the Patapsco (Upper and Lower) and Patuxent aquifer systems if managed (optimized) correctly. However, since that study new projections developed for the updated CWSP need to be evaluated. Additionally, the 2007 study did not evaluate the potential impacts to private domestic wells. Domestic wells screened in the Lower Patapsco aquifer system in north-central Anne Arundel County may potentially be impacted by projected increases in withdrawals from AADPW public supply wells. The increased water withdrawals may potentially cause groundwater levels in domestic wells to fall below pump intakes or below the depth to which pumps can be lowered in telescoping wells.


Objective and Scope


The purpose of the study is to assess the potential effects of projected increases in groundwater withdrawals from AADPW public supply wells on the Patapsco (Upper and Lower) and Patuxent aquifer system 80% management levels and on domestic wells screened in the Lower Patapsco aquifer system to determine if the domestic wells are at risk of failure. The areas of concern for the domestic wells are located in portions of communities unserved (areas of no planned service) by public water in north-central Anne Arundel County in and around Pasadena Neck and Millersville.

References:

Andreasen, D.C., 2007, Optimization of groundwater withdrawals in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, from the Upper Patapsco, Lower Patapsco, and Patuxent aquifers projected through 2044: Maryland Geological Survey Report of Investigations No. 77, 107 p.

O’Brien and Gere, Inc., 2003, Comprehensive water strategic plan for Anne Arundel County: Landover, Maryland, 77 p.

Staley, A.W., Andreasen, D.C., and Curtin, S.E., in press, Potentiometric surface and water-level difference maps of selected confined aquifers in Southern Maryland and Maryland's Eastern Shore, 1975-2015: Maryland Geological Survey Open-File Report 16-02-02, 30 p.