--> Abstract: Application of Sequence Stratigraphy in Environmental and Groundwater Resource Assessments: A Case Study from the Dominguez Gap Area of the West Coast Basin, Southern California, by K. D. Ehman and R. S. Cramer; #90935 (1998).

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Abstract: Application of Sequence Stratigraphy in Environmental and Groundwater Resource Assessments: A Case Study from the Dominguez Gap Area of the West Coast Basin, Southern California

EHMAN, KENNETH D., and RICHARD S. CRAMER, Groundworks Environmental, Inc., Santa Clara, CA

Sequence stratigraphy is the state-of-the-art method for delineating reservoir geometry and continuity in the petroleum industry and should be incorporated into environmental and groundwater resource assessments. By evaluating subsurface data using sequence stratigraphy, the geometry and distribution of aquifer and aquitard sediments (aquifer architecture) are linked to the original depositional processes that formed the sediments. In typical groundwater resource assessments and remedial investigations, the interpretation of the hydrostratigraphy may oversimplify the complex geometry and distribution of aquifer and aquitard sediments.

In the early 1960s, as part of the Dominguez Gap Barrier Project, a hydrostratigraphic model of the Pleistocene to Recent sediments in the Dominguez Gap area of the West Coast Basin in southern California was developed. This hydrostratigraphic model did not provide the detail needed to address many of the current groundwater issues in the region. As part of a groundwater remedial investigation in this area, we developed a sequence stratigraphic interpretation to redefine the hydrostratigraphy. The distribution and geometry of the Gaspur, Gage, and Lynwood aquifers are now delineated within a sequence stratigraphic framework in the West Coast Basin. Using this improved understanding of the aquifer architecture, we were able to define the contaminant migration pathways associated with a former hazardous waste disposal site and evaluate the groundwater resources underlying the contaminated site.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90935©1998 AAPG Pacific Section Meeting, Ventura, California