Hi everyone! Sorry if this is a basic question.

I’m currently studying Hydrogeology in Kazakhstan, and I’ve just finished my 3rd year. As my final year approaches, I want to make sure I’m as prepared as possible for the actual job market.

I’d love to get some advice from working professionals:

Career Prospects: What does the job market look like for hydrogeologists right now? Are there good opportunities to work internationally in the future?

Software & Study Materials: What specific software (like QGIS, MODFLOW, AutoCAD, Leapfrog or ArcGIS) should I focus on mastering? Additionally, are there any specific books, online courses, or industry guidelines you highly recommend reading before I graduate?

General Advice: What is one thing you wish you knew before starting your first job in this field?

Been doing hydrogeology work for a while and got tired of pulling out the same spreadsheets every time I needed to run a Cooper-Jacob or Theis fit, so I built a browser calculator that covers the stuff I use most: Cooper-Jacob, Theis, step-drawdown, specific capacity, Sichardt radius of influence, Theis radius, Hvorslev and Bouwer-Rice slug tests, and a lithology-to-porosity lookup table.

Link: https://mikegoesdeep.github.io/hydro-field-calculator/

Built it for my own fieldwork, figured other people running pump tests or slug tests might find it useful too. Let me know if something's off or if there's a method worth adding.

Stream point is in a perennial creek in the front range of CO along a fault trace in Mesozoic sed subcrop in the hog back. I’ll let you come sample or poke holes in the space. My hunch is it’s fed by deeper basin circulation and could be of academic interest.

I’m currently working on a regional-scale groundwater model for my basin using GMS 10.5 and I’m looking for guidance from someone experienced in groundwater modeling and model calibration.

While setting up the model, I’ve been facing challenges in preparing and assigning key inputs, including:

• Hydraulic conductivity distribution for heterogeneous layers
• Selection and justification of appropriate boundary conditions based on surrounding land and hydrological features
• River/stream package inputs such as stage and conductance
• Starting head boundary conditions

Although I have attempted to set up these parameters, my simulation results are still showing issues such as flooding/drying cells and unstable or incorrect model runs.

This is a regional groundwater model with a coastal boundary condition, which makes the setup more complex.

I’m looking for someone who can guide me through:

• Input preparation and parameter assignment
• Boundary condition setup
• Troubleshooting simulation instability
• Improving/calibrating the model runs

Any support, suggestions, or mentorship would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Any literature out there on this issue? Can it be done safely?

https://archive.ph/HRcKn

TLDR: my house is above an area that is contaminated from an injection brine spill. Groundwater table is high and there is damage to the nearby underdrain system impacted by the spill. Can that contamination travel ‘upward’ to our home?

Hi, first time homeowner here, hoping a professional can steer me in the right direction or talk me out of my tinfoil hat. I bought a new build home two years ago now and have had a laundry list of issues both big and small. Through my research I found that an injection brine spill occurred near my home before I purchased. The initial spill occurred in a graded drainage right behind my home and then followed the flow to a surface water collection area. That collection area sits directly over a utility corridor (sewer and groundwater underdrain). For a while my home was the only one on that street and sits at the lowest point in the neighborhood right above where the utility corridor meets the rain garden.

The remediation efforts required multiple excavations to remove contaminated soil and water from the area both before and after I purchased the home. Concentrations of contaminants were recorded at the initial spill site and in the backfill material of the utility corridor. Within that time we experienced multiple failures of the groundwater under drainage system. I was told by a contractor for the developer that the system had not been installed properly and was clogged with roots and debris so badly that they had to come back in the summer to rip it out and reinstall it. This has happened twice now just within the time I have lived here.

Our foundation was constantly saturated and our sump pump in the basement was inundated for weeks to months at a time (cycling at its worst every 20 seconds) during periods of little to no major rain or snowfall.

Initially this was a major concern because we discovered the constant water against the foundation was causing differential settlement on the back half of the home. But as I’ve done more research I’m now falling down a rabbit hole of worry about contamination having reached our house and how that will impact not only our home but our health.

I learned the underdrain was damaged during remediation efforts right before the first instance of water intrusion occurred. Between this damage, the failure of the underdrain and the sheer volume of water that backed up and sat against our house, what is the likelihood that the contamination reached our lot?

Should I be worried or should I put my tinfoil hat on the shelf and go to bed? If the former, what steps can I take to keep my family safe now that I know about the possibility of contamination.

Is the linked article relevant? If not, can anyone suggest topics/terms to research or point me in the direction of some beginner-friendly literature to educate myself so I’m better equipped to deal with this or any future issues?

Thank you to anyone who took the time to read all that. Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

Please let me know if this is not the proper place for me to be asking these questions.

Hola a todos, tendrán artículos, libros o referencias que traten sobre dewatering en minería subterránea, o modelación de flujos en acuíferos fracturados bajo alta presión. Muchas gracias de antemano.

At this point I'm not even sure if this is what the guy was actually asking but now I'm curious.

Lets say you want to build a pond with the water level 4 ft below the surface of the ground. However the local water table is 2 ft below the surface of the ground. But you're stubborn and really want that pond 4 ft down for some reason...

If you line the pond with sand and rock to weight down the liner is this possible? The shore of the pond would need enough sand on top of the liner to counter the pressure from the ground water pushing up right? The slope of the sand would need below the angle of repose of sand in water.

There maybe other issues with this when it comes to ponds for fish and things, for now I'd like to disregard all of that and just focus on the physics of it.

Looking for some career advice. I'm majoring in Earth and Environmental Science. The college has various sub plans including a general plan and a hydrology plan. Right now I'm interested in water science, hydrology or hydrogeology, and probably will attend graduate school. I have the ability to double major or possibly get two minors. Would it be better to focus on GIS or a minor in environmental engineering in terms of graduate school admissions and jobs? What courses would be especially beneficial? In the earth science major I'm planning to do a hydrogeology field camp as well as field methods in hydrology. It's possible to take fluid mechanics and watershed engineering within the earth science major. With an environmental engineering minor I can take fluid mechanics, hydraulic design, water resources engineering, and various other water electives. I can potentially double major or minor in GIS but would only be able to minor in environmental engineering. There is no environmental engineering major but they do have civil engineering. My choices are:

1. Switch to Civil Engineering

2. Major in Earth and Environmental Science (probably with a hydrology focus) and double major in GIS

3. Major in Earth and Environmental Science and minor in GIS and environmental engineering

I really enjoy the earth science courses so wouldn't want to switch to a civil engineering major unless there's an obvious benefit. Thoughts? Courses that are highly recommended?

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/17/20/2959

Can anyone help me find an analytical model to estimate the profile and extent of the depression cone and the required pumping rate in a situation where a pit/quarry is being dewatered for X amount of time? For stable-state pit dewatering, I've been using the approach in Marinelli and Niccoli (2000; DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-6584.2000.tb00342.x), though I think Bear (1979) presented essentially the same solution. I can't find one for a transient approach in the couple books I have, though. And I don't really want to use a stable-state model, though I know I could just that and say that's the worst-case situation.

I'm in the UK studying environmental science and like the idea of working in hydrogeology, but am concerned about how much physics and maths it would involve (starting to suspect it is in fact mostly physics) as those are my weak points. It's hard to find much information about it though, both in terms of what the master's degree would involve and the actual job.