Ground water and permafrost at Bethel, Alaska

This report is a result of a study of the results of a test-drilling program conducted by the Alaska Department of Health to determine whether a ground-water supply is available in the village of Bethel, Alaska. The U. S. Geological Survey was asked to assist in evaluating the available information on the geology, the ground-water possibilities at the village, and the results of drilling a deep test well, as part of the program of determining the ground-water resources of Alaska.

There has been little ground-water development in the part of Alaska that includes the Bethel area, and very little was previously known of ground-water conditions there. Cederstrom (Cederstrom, D. J., 1952, Summary of Ground-Water Development in Alaska, 1950: U. S. Geol. Survey Circ. 169, p. 29-3C) summarized the information available for the village of Bethel as of 1950. At that time the villagers were using the Kuskokwim River for their water supply, and that use has continued to the present.

This report describes the subsurface materials and ground-water conditions at Bethel (fig. 1) and in the immediate vicinity as interpreted in the light of recent drilling of an Alaska Department of Health test well (no. 14 in this, report). The area surrounding the village was included in the investigation because of the information available on existing wells and tent holes drilled in that area. The files of the Ground Water Branch of the Geological Survey at Anchorage contained records of a few of the wells and test holes drilled prior to the time of this investigation (see fig. 2 for well and test-hole locations). Additional water samples were obtained and analyzed at the laboratory of the Geological Survey at Palmer, Alaska, to supplement the analyses already on file. Supplementary well information was kindly furnished by the following: Project Engineer at the U. S. Air Force Station, Resident Engineer at the Alaska Native Health Service Hospital, Mr. Clarence Marsh of the Alaska Road Commission, Bethel, Mr. Schmidt, local water purveyor, and Mr. Elmer Nicholson, Northern Consolidated Airlines, Inc. bush pilot.