Groundwater Quality in the Western San Joaquin Valley Study Unit, 2010: California GAMA Priority Basin Project

Water quality in groundwater resources used for public drinking-water supply in the Western San Joaquin Valley (WSJV) was investigated by the USGS in cooperation with the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) as part of its Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment (GAMA) Program Priority Basin Project. The WSJV includes two study areas: the Delta–Mendota and Westside subbasins of the San Joaquin Valley groundwater basin. Study objectives for the WSJV study unit included two assessment types: (1) a status assessment yielding quantitative estimates of the current (2010) status of groundwater quality in the groundwater resources used for public drinking water, and (2) an evaluation of natural and anthropogenic factors that could be affecting the groundwater quality. The assessments characterized the quality of untreated groundwater, not the quality of treated drinking water delivered to consumers by water distributors.

The status assessment was based on data collected from 43 wells sampled by the U.S. Geological Survey for the GAMA Priority Basin Project (USGS-GAMA) in 2010 and data compiled in the SWRCB Division of Drinking Water (SWRCB-DDW) database for 74 additional public-supply wells sampled for regulatory compliance purposes between 2007 and 2010. To provide context, concentrations of constituents measured in groundwater were compared to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and SWRCB-DDW regulatory and non-regulatory benchmarks for drinking-water quality. The status assessment used a spatially weighted, grid-based method to estimate the proportion of the groundwater resources used for public drinking water that has concentrations for particular constituents or class of constituents approaching or above benchmark concentrations. This method provides statistically unbiased results at the study-area scale within the WSJV study unit, and permits comparison of the two study areas to other areas assessed by the GAMA Priority Basin Project statewide.

Groundwater resources used for public drinking water in the WSJV study unit are among the most saline and most affected by high concentrations of inorganic constituents of all groundwater resources used for public drinking water that have been assessed by the GAMA Priority Basin Project statewide. Among the 82 GAMA Priority Basin Project study areas statewide, the Delta–Mendota study area ranked above the 90th percentile for aquifer-scale proportions of groundwater resources having concentrations of total dissolved solids (TDS), sulfate, chloride, manganese, boron, chromium(VI), selenium, and strontium above benchmarks, and the Westside study area ranked above the 90th percentile for TDS, sulfate, manganese, and boron.