Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID MT_2024_Gardner

Using Environmental Tracers to Estimate Distributed Groundwater Discharge, Source and Residence Time

Institute: Montana
Year Established: 2024 Start Date: 2024-09-01 End Date: 2025-08-31
Total Federal Funds: $18,245 Total Non-Federal Funds: $18,245

Principal Investigators: Payton Gardner

Project Summary: This project will identify locations of groundwater discharge, quantify groundwater discharge volume, and characterize the residence time and chemical composition of groundwater discharge to a study reach along the upper Clark Fork River near Warm Springs. The result will be a map of groundwater discharge location, magnitude, age, and geochemical composition along the reach. This map will help scientists, engineers, and resource managers develop better conceptual models of groundwater-stream water interactions in this complex area, optimize future research and remediation design, and better forecast long-term recovery of water quality. The techniques developed during this study, will further enhance the use of environmental tracer surveys to constrain groundwater-stream water interactions.