Flow Analysis through Collector Well Laterals: A Case Study from Sonoma County Water Agency, California

Authors

Matteo D'Alessio, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow
John Lucio, ERM, Inc.Follow
Ernest Williams, Bennet & Williams Environmental Consultants, Inc.Follow
James Warner, ERM, Inc.Follow
Donald Seymour, Sonoma County Water AgencyFollow
Jay Jasperse, Sonoma County Water AgencyFollow
Chittaranjan Ray, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2018

Citation

Water 2018, 10, 1848

Comments

© 2018 by the authors.

Open access

doi:10.3390/w10121848

Abstract

The Sonoma County Water Agency (SWCA) uses six radial collector wells along the Russian River west of Santa Rosa, to provide water for several municipalities and water districts in north-western California. Three collector wells (1, 2, and 6) are located in the Wohler area, and three collector wells (3, 4, and 5) are located in the Mirabel area. The objective of this paper is to highlight the performance of the three collector wells located in the Mirabel area since their construction. The 2015 investigation showed a lower performance of Collectors 3 and 4 compared to their original performances after construction in 1975, while the performance of Collector 5 was relatively stable since 1982. The potential change in capacity could be due to the increase in encrustation observed during the visual inspection of laterals in all three collector wells. Overall, the three collectors are still within the optimal design parameters (screen entrance velocity < 0.305 m min^-1 and axial flow velocity of lateral screens < 1.524 m s^-1).