BYRDS MILL SPRING: EFFECTS OF INTERMITTENT FLOW PATHS

Byrds Mill Spring is the largest spring in Oklahoma and a primary water supply for the city of Ada. The spring is of interest to both karst science and a city dependent on the spring's low variability. Byrds Mill Spring normally functions as an underflow spring, with isothermal temperature and constant fluid conductivity as a normal state. Although the age of the water is young, it appears to be in equilibrium with the dolomitic Arbuckle-Simpson aquifer. 2015 provided an extreme year for precipitation events in the spring basin. These events provided insight into the flowpaths for the spring, illustrating rapid flow of precipitation to the spring as a siphon flowpath. The background flowpath was nearly eliminated at times due to the amount of rainwater entering the system. The effects of the interaction of these flow paths will be discussed, as well as implications for monitoring karst systems.