HYDROGEOLOGY OF SLIPPERY ROCK UNIVERSITY

Slippery Rock University’s campus is an intensively developed environment, presenting a highly disrupted hydrogeological setting. The goal of this research project is to develop a concise hydrogeologic assessment of the campus. Well logs from previous production wells and recent irrigation wells, as well as data from shallow wells installed for a hydrogeological laboratory, were compiled. These wells perforate the Pennsylvanian aged Allegheny and Pottsville groups, from the Kittanning Sandstone to the Mercer Shale and Coal. The Homewood Sandstone is the premier aquifer beneath the campus. Aquifer parameters were determined by pump tests performed on the production wells in the 1960s and the 1970s. Since the wells perforated multiple formations, the values of transmissivity and storage coefficients determined are composites for a stratigraphic packet consisting of the Kittanning Sandstone, Vanport Limestone, and the Clarion and Homewood Sandstones. The storage coefficients for this stratigraphic sequence range from 1*10-4 to 8*10-4, indicating confined conditions. The transmissivities present a range of values from 1,000 to 13,000 gpd/ft. The specific capacity for the wells spans a range of values from 1 to 15 gpm/ft, as determined with pumping rates that ranged from 30 to 110 gpm. We are assembling a campus map, structure contours, and a fence diagram in order to better convey the hydrogeology of campus.