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Hydrogeology of Effluent Disposal Zones, Floridan Aquifer, South Florida
Author(s) -
Haberfeld Joseph L.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
groundwater
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.84
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1745-6584
pISSN - 0017-467X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-6584.1991.tb00509.x
Subject(s) - aquifer , hydrogeology , effluent , groundwater , geology , hydrology (agriculture) , geological survey , water quality , environmental science , environmental engineering , geotechnical engineering , paleontology , ecology , biology
The increasing population of south Florida is creating a need for greater waste‐water disposal capacity. The people of Florida are dependent on ground water for drinking, irrigation, and other uses. The emphasis on preservation of surface‐water quality means that many surface waters are not allowed to receive effluent from municipal or industrial sources. Since the 1940s, the highly transmissive zones of the nonpotable portion of the Floridan aquifer have served as disposal zones for oil field brine and later for industrial and municipal effluent. The Floridan aquifer of south Florida is a carbonate Cenozoic age aquifer. Transmissivities between 0.5 and 21 million gpd/ft exist in cavernous and fractured sequences in the aquifer. Confining zones that overlie the disposal intervals have transmissivities and hydraulic conductivities one to three orders of magnitude less than the injection intervals. These confining zones prevent low density municipal effluent from rising upward through the overlying saline waters. This paper provides an integration of previously published work with recent site‐specific data collected from deep injection wells drilled in the last two decades.