West Crane Buried Valley Aquifer, Sidney, Richland County

Background

The Lower Yellowstone Buried Valley (LYBV) aquifer forms an important water resource in eastern Montana. The sand and gravels of the LYBV form a complex aquifer system, with some areas capable of supporting high-yield irrigation wells and the municipal water supply to the city of Sidney. It also underlies the irrigated farmland in the Yellowstone River valley near Sidney and underlies dryland farmland. In the upland setting, the aquifer is referred to as the West Crane aquifer, where there is the greatest interest in irrigation development. The aquifer underlies land traditionally used to grow dryland crops until its discovery in 2007. Since then new irrigation wells have caused concern about the aquifer's capability to support groundwater development.

Purpose

The project purpose is to estimate how much groundwater can be sustainably developed for irrigation out of the West Crane segment of the Lower Yellowstone Buried Valley aquifer without significantly affecting groundwater and surface-water resources.

Project Scope

Exploratory drilling defined the aquifer boundaries and extent. Aquifer tests provided hydraulic conductivity (K), storage coefficient (S), and aquifer boundaries. Groundwater-level hydrographs were interpreted to assess sources of recharge. The project included water-quality characterization to assess the suitability of groundwater for irrigation. A groundwater flow model was developed to test scenarios on irrigation potential and effects to the hydrogeologic system.

Project Status

A report on the hydrogeology was published in 2023. A groundwater model was developed and a report describing model construction, calibration, and scenario results is in formal review.

Project Reports

• Hydrogeology and irrigation potential of the West Crane aquifer, Richland County, Montana (Reiten, J., and Chandler, K., 2023)
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Download report (18.9 MB)
Download plate 1: West Crane monitoring sites and potentiometric surface (270.7 MB)
Download plate 2: West Crane surficial geology (18.4 MB)
Download plate 3: West Crane longitudinal profile with hydrographs (4.4 MB)


• West Crane aquifer test summaries, Richland County, Montana (Reiten, J., and Chandler, K., 2021)
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Download report (6.2 MB)


• West Crane buried valley aquifer: A hidden resource (Chandler, K., and Reiten, J., 2020)
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Download report (2.76 MB)

Project Personnel

Kurt Zeiler

Associate Research Hydrogeologist

Presentations

We have no presentations regarding this project for you to view at this time.

Link to Project Data

Data collected for this project can be accessed through the Ground Water Information Center (GWIC) database:

Download project data from GWIC

Content last updated: 5/10/2022 11:17:29 AM