| El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1 (EPCWID No.1) delivers the Rio Grande water for agricultural production and urban uses through numerous networked irrigation canals. Of the nearly 86 billion gallons of water released annually for irrigation uses in Texas, billions are lost due to evaporation and seepage in unlined canals with 56 million gallons of the billions are lost in Franklin Canal annually due to improper lining and sediment variation of the canals. To characterize seepage patterns and identify areas of high seepage, Electrical Resistivity, Ground Truthing via soil sample analysis were used along three, half-mile long sectioned canals during irrigation and non-irrigation seasons. The data lines acquired were processed in EARTHIMAGER 2D to create 2D vertical resistivity inversion profiles to locate potential areas of high seepage/high resistivity. The research results will help El Paso County Water Improvement District No. 1 to develop management strategies to conserve water and improve the delivery efficiency systems which leads to economic growth in the Rio Grande Basin. |
