Cooper River Rediversion Project. Lake Moultrie and Santee River, South Carolina. The Effect of the Cooper River Rediversion Canal on the Ground-Water Regimen of the St. Stephen Area, South Carolina

摘要

Heavy siltation of Charleston Harbor has caused the US Army Corps of Engineers to consider plans to divert the major flow of fresh water through a new canal to be constructed from the Lake Marion-Lake Moultrie-Cooper River complex to the Santee River. The US Geological Survey was asked to study the effect such a canal would have on the ground-water regimen of the area. The drilling phase of the study consisted of 33 core holes located along and at right angles to the canal right-of-way. The purposes of the core holes were to delineate the subsurface geology and to locate possible sites for the observation well network. As a result, 20 observation wells were drilled in order to monitor water levels before, during, and after construction of the canal and power house. As a result of the drilling program three aquifers in the study area were delineated: aquifer 1, a shallow (40-60 feet) sand which supplies limited amounts of water to wells; aquifer 2, a confined limestone (90-120 feet) which is the most widely used aquifer in the vicinity of the canal right-of-way; and aquifer 3, a sand and gravel remnant of a buried stream channel found in the flood plain.