Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Routine Hydrocarbon Sampling

No Drought
Lovelady well height: 538 ft-msl (116 ft-Depth to Water)
Barton Springs: approximately: 105 cfs (10-day average)


Several operational pipelines cross the District territory. In 2013 the Magellan pipeline (formerly Longhorn pipeline) changed operation of the line; and in response, the District in cooperation with Magellan Midstream Partners, LLC, began a routine water quality monitoring program that screens groundwater for hydrocarbons that could be sourced from petroleum pipelines (and other sources). Each year District staff samples water from several springs and sentinel wells and since 2013 there have been no detections.

The 2019 annual screening had no detections of hydrocarbons at the eight spring and well monitoring sites. Water samples were analyzed for Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) and volatiles (BTEX: Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, Xylenes, and MTBE, Methyl tert-butyl ether).