157 Exploring Groundwater Recharge and Management: Managed Aquifer Recharge and Other Innovative Tools for Water Supply Development and Operations
Growing demand for water has highlighted the need to understand aquifer recharge to improve groundwater management and production methods. This session explores groundwater recharge and innovative water supplies and infrastructure. Topics include evapotranspiration, vadose zone processes, brackish groundwater desalination, managed aquifer recharge, stormwater management, and others.
Tuesday, 21 October 2025
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
HBGCC, 209
Aquifer Storage and Recovery in Texas: An Aquifer Characterization for the San Jacinto River Authority
Paper number: 157-8
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 10:00 AM – 10:15 AM
Authors
Abstract
In 2019, the 86th Texas Legislature passed HB 721 which tasked the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) to work with interested people, including groundwater and river authorities, to conduct studies on aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) and aquifer recharge (AR) across the state. As part of this mandate, the TWDB is conducting an aquifer characterization study for the San Jacinto River Authority (SJRA) to support development of an ASR project to diversify their water supply. This study will also fill some data gaps identified in the SJRA’s Raw Water Supply Master Plan including local aquifer characteristics and storage potential. This aquifer characterization focuses on the Jasper aquifer of the Gulf Coast Aquifer system underlying the SJRA service area in Montgomery and Harris counties. The Jasper aquifer is upper Oligocene to middle Miocene age and includes the Lower Lagarto Formation and the Oakville Sand and is primarily composed of interbedded sands and clays deposited in fluvial and coastal plain environments. Data was gathered from oil and gas geophysical logs, water well geophysical and drillers logs, and surficial geology maps to interpolate rasters of the subsurface stratigraphic tops, thicknesses, and net sands. The results show that in the study area, the Lower Lagarto ranges from a depth of roughly 600’ to 1400’ with a thickness of roughly 250’ to 600’ and the Oakville Sand ranges from a depth of roughly 1000’ to 1800’ with a thickness of roughly 400’ to 1000’. Net sand values range from 130’ to 300’ in the Lower Lagarto and from 50’ to 250’ in the Oakville Sand. These results indicate that the Lower Lagarto has abundant sand beds across the study area and potentially be a storage zone for SJRA to utilize in their ASR planning. In addition to the stratigraphic and net sands mapping, storage targets and water quality mapping will be completed to round out the aquifer characterization. Next steps for this project are final report writing and a public data release. This robust, subsurface dataset will aid SJRA as they look to reduce their groundwater use.
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6
doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-412204
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