Contrasts in regional and local-scale heterogeneity in relation to ground-water supply and contamination in the Albuquerque Basin
— James T. McCord and Daniel B. Stephens

This paper discusses the multiscale nature of geologic heterogeneities in the context of ground-water supply and ground-water contamination problems. Following a discussion of general issues related to heterogeneity scale in water resource problems, two datasets developed as part of characterization efforts on the Albuquerque basin's West Mesa are described. One of the datasets was generated as part of the ongoing water supply hydrogeoelogic characterization of the basin. The other dataset resulted from characterization associated with a shallow ground-water contamination problem resulting from solvent releases near the ground surface. Comparing and contrasting the two datasets clearly demonstrates the differences inherent in the relevant geologic heterogeneity scales, which hydrogeologists must consider when addressing such problems. For regional ground-water supply resource evaluations, the relevant scales of heterogeneity are at least an order of magnitude larger than the heterogeneity scales important to localized ground-water contamination problems.