A ground-water inventory of the Waialua basal-water body, Island of Oahu, Hawaii

Open-File Report 78-24
Prepared in cooperation with Board of Water Supply City and County of Honolulu, Honolulu, Hawaii
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Abstract

The Waialua basal-water body underlies an area of about 18 square miles on the north shore of the island of Oahu, Hawaii. The basal-water body is a body of fresh ground water that floats on saline ground water in a highly permeable and porous basaltic aquifer.


Inflow to the basal-water body is from the deep infiltration of applied irrigation water and from leakage through a low permeability ground-water dam. Outflow from the basal-water body is from basal-water pumpage and leakage through low-permeability boundaries that separate the basal-water body from the ocean.


The basal-water flux, computed as either the sum of the inflow terms or the sum of the outflow terms, is about the same value. The basal-water flux is 55 million gallons per day, (206,000 cubic meters per day), based on the sum of the outflow terms.


The effective porosity was computed at 0.09 by a time-series analysis of the covariations in deep infiltration, pumpage, and basal-water head. The volume of basal water in storage is estimated to be 1.4 x 1011 gallons (5.4 x 108 cubic meters).


Pumpage from the basal-water body can be increased. The most efficient development method is the skimming shaft. If shafts were used, an additional 15 million gallons per day could be pumped on a sustained basis.

Study Area

Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title A ground-water inventory of the Waialua basal-water body, Island of Oahu, Hawaii
Series title Open-File Report
Series number 78-24
DOI 10.3133/ofr7824
Year Published 1978
Language English
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Description x, 76 p.
Country United States
State Hawai'i
City Oahu
Other Geospatial Waialua
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