With funding from DWFI and a matching grant from the National Science Foundation, and in collaboration with researchers from University of Utah and North Carolina State University, graduate student Caner Zeyrek and his advisor, Troy Gilmore, associate professor of groundwater hydrology in the School of Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, are learning a lot about Nebraska's water flows.
"Nebraska sits over the deepest part of the Ogallala Aquifer," said Gilmore, "and some of that deeper groundwater is more than 10,000 years old." The age of groundwater is important because it can help scientists understand how water is moving through the ground. Groundwater age gives insight into how quickly groundwater is replenished, and how the aquifer contributes water and dissolved nutrients like nitrogen to connected streams and rivers.
Like other irrigation-predominant agricultural states, Nebraska has areas where there are high concentrations of nitrate in its groundwater. At excessive levels, nitrates can leach into drinking water with the potential to cause [TG3] health problems, such as blue baby syndrome, birth defects, thyroid disease and certain types of cancer.
Zeyrek helped collect data to estimate groundwater transit time distributions, also known as TTDs. This information is used to develop a numerical groundwater flow model that simulates how quickly contaminants such as nitrogen are flushed out of aquifers and into streams.
"There are a lot of factors that affect groundwater and stream water," said Gilmore. "Caner's work will help us improve our groundwater modeling systems so we can better predict how certain variables, like climate change, will impact Nebraska's water. This research is needed by water managers and agricultural producers so they can better understand long-term effects of regulation and decision-making."