USGS

Construction, Geology, and Aquifer Testing of the Maalo Road, Aahoaka Hill, and Upper Eleele Tank Monitor Wells, Kauai, Hawaii

Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Open-File Report 2005-1159

 

By Scot K. Izuka

 

ONLINE ONLY

 

This report is available as a pdf.

 

Abstract

The Maalo Road, Aahoaka Hill, and Upper Eleele Tank monitor wells were constructed using rotary drilling methods between July 1998 and August 2002 as part of a program of exploratory drilling, aquifer testing, and hydrologic analysis on Kauai. Aquifer tests were conducted in the uncased boreholes of the wells.

The Maalo Road monitor well in the Lihue Basin penetrated 915 feet, mostly through mafic lava flows. Most of the rock samples from this well had chemical compositions similar to the Koloa Volcanics, but the deepest sample analyzed had a composition similar to the Waimea Canyon Basalt. Water temperature ranged from 25.6 to 27.4 degrees Celsius and specific conductance ranged from 303 to 627 microsiemens per centimeter during aquifer testing. Discharge rate ranged from 174 to 220 gallons per minute and maximum drawdown was 138.25 ft during a 7-day sustained-discharge test, but the test was affected by pump and generator problems.

The Aahoaka Hill monitor well in the Lihue Basin penetrated 804 feet, mostly through mafic lava flows and possibly dikes. The well penetrated rocks having chemical compositions similar to the Waimea Canyon Basalt. During the first three hours of a sustained-discharge aquifer test in which the discharge rate varied between 92 and 117 gallons per minute, water temperature was 24.6 to 25.6 degrees Celsius, and specific conductance was 212 to 238 microsiemens per centimeter; this test was halted after a short period because drawdown was high. In a subsequent 7-day test, discharge was 8 to 23 gallons per minute, and maximum drawdown was 37.71 feet after 1,515 minutes of testing.

The Upper Eleele Tank monitor well is near the Hanapepe River Valley. The well penetrated 740 feet through soil, sediment, mafic lava flows, volcanic ash, and scoria. Rocks above a depth of 345 feet had compositions similar to the Koloa Volcanics, but a sample from 720 to 725 feet had a composition similar to rocks of the Waimea Canyon Basalt. During a 7-day aquifer test with a sustained discharge between 278 and 290 gallons per minute, most of the drawdown of 1.10 feet occurred in the first 455 minutes of the test. Water levels measured thereafter may have been influenced by pumping from a nearby well. Water temperature ranged from 20.2 to 21.4 degrees Celsius and specific conductance from 8,380 to 18,940 microsiemens per centimeter during the aquifer tests.

Contents



For sale by

 

U.S. Geological Survey,

Information Services
Box 25286, Denver Federal Center
Denver, CO 80225

 

For more information about the USGS and its products:
Telephone: 1-888-ASK-USGS

World Wide Web: http://www.usgs.gov/

 

For more information about USGS activities in Hawaii, visit the USGS Pacific Islands Water Science Center home page.

 

Any use of trade, product, or firm names in this publication is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.Although this report is in the public domain, permission must be secured from the individual copyright owners to reproduce any copyrighted materials contained within this report.

 

 


Suggested citation:

 

Citation: Izuka, S.K., 2005, Construction, Geology, and Aquifer Testing of the Maalo Road, Aahoaka Hill, and Upper Eleele Tank Monitor Wells, Kauai, Hawaii: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2005-1159, 21 p.

 

This report is available online in Portable Document Format (PDF). If you do not have the Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader, it is available for free download from Adobe Systems Incorporated.

 

Download the text of the report (PDF, 2 MB)

 

Document Accessibility: Adobe Systems Incorporated has information about PDFs and the visually impaired. This information provides tools to help make PDF files accessible. These tools convert Adobe PDF documents into HTML or ASCII text, which then can be read by a number of common screen-reading programs that synthesize text as audible speech. In addition, an accessible version of Acrobat Reader 6.0 for Windows (English only), which contains support for screen readers, is available. These tools and the accessible reader may be obtained free from Adobe at Adobe Access.

 

For more information about USGS activities in Hawaii, visit the USGS Pacific Islands Water Science Center home page.

 

 

Top




FirstGov button  Take Pride in America button