Monitoring baseline groundwater and surface-water characteristics in the vicinity of Zion and Bryce Canyon NPs and Pipe Spring NM: A project proposal
Freethey G and USGS. 1988. Monitoring baseline groundwater and surface-water characteristics in the vicinity of Zion and Bryce Canyon NPs and Pipe Spring NM: A project proposal
SW Utah and NW Arizona is an area of outstanding scenic beauty, but the area also contains large minable coal deposits. Extracting these coal reserves will require use of water and may cause a significant disturbance of the land where the coal is buried. Bryce Canyon National Park is a few miles north of the Alton coalfield and Zion National Park is a few miles south of the Kolob coalfield. The hanging gardens in Zion are supported by spring discharge from the Navajo Sandstone. Pipe Spring National Monument, whose source of spring flow is also the Navajo Sandstone, is about 30-40 miles south of these coal areas. Water in the Navajo is not used at Bryce Canyon National Park because it is too deep. If mining takes place it will occur in the upper reaches of the Virgin River and the Kanab Creek drainages. Water needed for slurrying the coal for transport would probably be pumped from the Navajo Sandstone north of Kanab, Utah. This project will define selected baseline characteristics of surface and ground water and their seasonal variability. These characteristics would include the chemical quality of water from springs, the quantity of flow from springs, the discharge and chemical quality of water in streams, and the suspended sediment in streams. If these baseline values and their seasonal variability are recorded for several years, then the general range of values that plants and animals in the parks are accustomed to can be established. This record of baseline values and continued monitoring during any development can then be used to determine if, when, and the extent that coal mining or pumping are affecting the hydrologic environment at Zion, Pipe Spring or Bryce Canyon National Park.
- Type
- Unpublished Report
- Authors
- Freethey, Goeffrey; USGS
- Date of Issue
- 1988-03
- Units
- BRCA , CEBR , PISP , ZION
- Keywords
- Aquatic Studies, Coal Mining, Discharge, Ground Water, Navajo Sandstone, NCPN springs literature 2003, Suspended Sediment, Water Quantity