HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES

Hydrol. Process. 29, 23852401 (2015)

Published online 24 October 2014 in Wiley Online Library
(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/hyp.10375

Ephemeral stream chemistry below the elevation of near-zero

net inltration
Omar M. Al-Qudah,1* Arturo Woocay2 and John C. Walton1
1

Civil Engineering Department, The University of Texas at El Paso, 500 W University Ave, El Paso, TX, 79968, USA
Divisin de Estudios de Posgrado e Investigacin, Instituto Tecnolgico de Ciudad Jurez, Ave. Tecnolgico 1340, Ciudad Jurez, CHIH,
32500, Mexico

Abstract:
Stormwater along ephemeral arroyos and areal inltration in nearby boreholes were studied in the Amargosa Desert Region of
Southern Nevada, USA. Chemical composition of ephemeral stream runoff was measured at elevations below where areal
inltration generally occurs in arid environments using lysimeters designed for this study. Borehole cuttings from several wells
were evaluated in terms of chloride migration. Analysis of the borehole data indicates that net areal inltration has been
insignicant for the past 10 000+ years. This is associated with an environment where chloride and other soluble salts accumulate
in shallow sediments and potentially in runoff waters. Measured storm events during the 4-year study period were small and
localized but sufcient to produce surface runoff, at least near the lysimeters. Composition of storm runoff captured by the
lysimeters was found to be a combination of the water chemistry types found in precipitation and from leaching tests of near-surface
sediments. All major cations and bicarbonate increased relative to chloride when precipitation interacted with sediments to form
ephemeral stream runoff. The changes were consistent with calculated saturation indices. Despite the long-term accumulation of
chloride in soils and deep sediments caused by complete evapotranspiration of inltrating precipitation, runoff waters were
characterized by low chloride and total dissolved solids. This study presents a limitation of the chloride mass-balance method, as
chloride and water migration were disassociated from each other in the study area. Copyright 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
KEY WORDS

runoff; Fortymile Wash; arid environments; chloride mass balance; solute transport; lysimeter

Received 11 April 2013; Accepted 1 October 2014

INTRODUCTION
The chemistry of precipitation evolves as it interacts with
surcial sediments and pore waters to create stormwater
runoff. Quality, quantity, and timing of stormwater
creation in ephemeral streams are primary factors for
long-term sustainable use of water resources in arid
regions, which are expanding, currently representing 41%
of global terrestrial surface area, and are home to more
than a third of the worlds population (McKnight and
Hess, 2000; Feng and Fu, 2013). With rising future water
demand, surface runoff from ephemeral streams in desert
regions could be an important water resource if it is of
sufcient quality.
Sampling of surface runoff in a desert environment
from ephemeral arroyos is complicated by a number of
practical concerns: Surface runoff events are uncommon,
sometimes separated by gaps of more than a year, and
difcult to forecast. Relatively little information is

*Correspondence to: Omar M. Al-Qudah, 2512 Southridge Dr. Apt#A,

Jefferson City, MO 65109, USA.
E-mail: omal@miners.utep.edu; alqudah.omar75@hotmail.com

Copyright 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

available regarding the chemistry of surface runoff in

desert regions, how it relates to precipitation and sediment
chemistry, and how the salinity of the runoff water relates
to the water and salt balance of the surrounding desert.
Will runoff waters originating from desert areas where
soluble salts are accumulating in the sediments necessarily be high in dissolved salts? Or is the water and salt
balance of the ephemeral stream somehow disconnected
from the balance in the surrounding desert?
The scarcity of data, lack of high-quality observations,
and the variability in space and time are important
characteristics of the ephemeral streams in arid regions
(Al-Qudah et al., 2010). Some authors have studied desert
ash oods as a dilution phenomenon in terms of
dissolved substances, in which low conductivity rainwater
dilutes salts accumulated in sediments by evaporative
concentration of precipitation, e.g. Fisher and Minckley
(1978) and Native et al. (1997). Their results indicate that
the dilution phenomena of oods are partially offset by
surface runoff, increased leaching from the ephemeral
streambeds and surrounding lands, and dissolution of
solutes from newly exposed rock and soil minerals, and
from suspended particles. In the vicinity of the Amargosa

2386

O. M. AL-QUDAH, A. WOOCAY AND J. C. WALTON

Desert, Nevada, USA, some authors (e.g. Beck and

Glancy, 1995) have documented the ow in the Amargosa
River and Fortymile Wash during some ash ood events
occurring between 1983 and 1996. Their work, which is
restricted to high ow events, documents the dilution
phenomenon but does not address the chemistry of smaller,
more frequent storms and/or the relationship between
precipitation and sediment chemistry.
In the past few decades, several techniques have been
individually developed by different researchers to
quantify groundwater recharge in semi-arid regions on
the basis of different scientic theories. Currently, the
chloride mass-balance (CMB) method is one of the most
frequently used recharge estimation methods, for example, in southern Australia, Allison et al. (1994); in north
America, Claassen et al. (1986) and Scanlon et al. (2006);
in the southern High Plains of Texas and New Mexico,
USA, Wood et al. (1997); in Nevada, USA, Dettinger
(1989) and Russell et al. (2007); in north Africa and the
Middle East, Eriksson and Khunakasem (1969) and
Subyani and Sen (2006); in India, Sukhija et al. (1988);
and in southern Africa, Gieske et al. (1990).
The fundamental concept of the CMB methods is that
chloride is a useful tracer of water ow through soil when
subject to evaporative concentration (Hem, 1992), it is
highly soluble and chemically stable in near-surface
environments, it does not enter oxidation or reduction
reactions, it is unlikely to be sorbed on mineral surfaces,
and it plays few vital biogeochemical roles (Hem, 1992).
Chloride is transported in the atmosphere and reaches
land via precipitation (wet fall) or as an aerosol (dry fall),
and then it is transported into the subsurface as
precipitation inltrates into the ground. Evapotranspiration will remove a portion of the inltrating water,
thereby concentrating the chloride. However, there are
signicant uncertainties in recharge estimates from CMB
owing to the difculty of determining the total chloride
deposition from atmospheric and runoff processes. Gee
et al. (2004) have tested the CMB methods against
26 years of drainage from a 7.6-m-deep lysimeter located
at Hanford Site in southeastern Washington State, USA.
Their results indicate that when recharge is above a few
millimetres per year (mm/year), soil water extracts can
lead to unreliable estimates of recharge (i.e. CMB
methods work best at high-salt concentrations and low
recharge rates).
The elevation-dependent CMB method is another
approach to estimate the spatial variations of water
inltration with respect to topography, where it is
assumed that there is a lower elevation (cut-off altitude)
below which inltration is negligible (i.e. it evaluates
spatial distribution of alluvial formations as a zone of
negligible recharge), e.g. Aishlin and McNamara (2011),
Russell et al. (2007), Russell and Minor (2002) and
Copyright 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Dettinger (1989). The minimum elevation (cut-off

altitude) at which precipitation makes a signicant
contribution to recharge in the desert basins of central
and southern Nevada was estimated by Harrill (1976) and
Dettinger (1989) as 1200 m above mean sea level
(AMSL), and by Russell and Minor (2002) as 1237 m
AMSL. This elevation was determined on the basis of the
elevation of the orice of Cane Spring, which Russell and
Minor believed to be the lowest-elevation permanent
spring on the Nevada nuclear test site.
Water transportation along the vadose zone has been
intensively studied in the Amargosa Desert vicinity,
whereas the contribution of surface runoff in the desert
groundwater recharge has received much less attention.
Many authors (e.g. Harrill, 1976; Dettinger, 1989;
Fabryka-Martin et al., 1998; Russell and Minor, 2002)
have suggested that no signicant water inltration occurs
through low elevation alluvial sediments in southern
Nevada. They assumed that the precipitation falling
below 1200-m-AMSL altitude does not contribute
signicantly to recharge, that nearly all runoff onto the
alluvial fans evaporates or percolates at the base of
the mountains, and that the rate of runoff past the foot of
the fans is negligible. Some other studies of the Amargosa
Desert regional groundwater (e.g. Montazer and Wilson,
1984; Claassen et al., 1986; Savard, 1998; Flint et al.,
2002; Hevesi et al., 2003) indicate that inltration of
surface runoff occurs in the valleys subsequent to runoff
producing storms and that this inltration represents a
large portion of the groundwater recharge in Southern
Nevada. However, all of these studies did not include
runoff sampling methodology or its chemistry, and how it
evolved through the topographic gradient.
The purpose of this study was to measure the chemistry
of ephemeral streamwater at elevations below the
minimum for signicant areal recharge for the region. A
plausible hypothesis was that stormwater from small
storms would dissolve and transport the soluble salts that
accumulate in the shallow sediments at this elevation,
leading to ephemeral water with high total dissolved
solids (TDS) and chloride. The study has two data
collection components: (i) measurement of chloride
proles at nearby boreholes to provide sediment chloride
proles and inltration history and (ii) measurement of
ephemeral streamwater chemistry in nearby dry arroyos.

DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDY SITE

The Amargosa Desert is located in southern Nevada, USA,
northeast of, and parallel to, Death Valley, between the
Mojave Desert and the southern boundary of the Great
Basin (Figure 1a, b). The area is drained by the ephemeral
Amargosa River, which is the major stream channel
Hydrol. Process. 29, 23852401 (2015)

EPHEMERAL STREAM CHEMISTRY

2387

Figure 1. (a) A digital elevation model map of the Amargosa Desert region, Nye County, NV, showing the topography gradient above sea level (AMSL).
The rectangle marks the study area presented in this research (b). (b) UTM coordinates map for the study area. The red stars represent lysimeters (S), and
the black diamonds represent boreholes

Copyright 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Hydrol. Process. 29, 23852401 (2015)

2388

O. M. AL-QUDAH, A. WOOCAY AND J. C. WALTON

owing into Death Valley. Fortymile Wash (Figure 1a, b),

an ephemeral stream that originates in the uplands north of
Yucca Mountain, between Timber Mountain and Shoshone Mountain, ows southward along the east of Yucca
Mountain and fans out in the northern part of the
Amargosa Desert just north of Highway 95. Near US
Highway 95, the Fortymile Wash channel changes from
being moderately conned to several distributary channels
that are poorly conned. This poorly dened, distributary
pattern persists downstream to its conuence with the
Amargosa River. A deep carbonate aquifer, locally up to
4600 m thick (Stetzenbach et al., 2001) and composed
mainly of Paleozoic limestones and dolomites (Flint et al.,
2001), underlies most of the tuff volcanic rocks and the
desert valley sandy soil alluvial ll (Kwicklis et al., 2003).
The present climate in the Amargosa Desert region is
considered arid to semi-arid, with average annual precipitation ranging from less than 130 mm at lower elevations
(<1200 m AMSL) to more than 280 mm at higher
elevations (>1200 m AMSL) (Flint et al., 2001). Between
2001 and 2005, average annual evapotranspiration rate, air
temperature, soil temperature, and relative humidity were
respectively 147.7232.6 mm/year, 18.018.4 C, 21.1
21.9 C, and 21.7 33.3% (Johnson et al., 2007).
Many authors (e.g. Claassen, 1985; Flint et al., 2002;
Al-Qudah et al., 2008; Woocay and Walton, 2008) have
reported the high quality of the groundwater beneath
Fortymile Wash, where the mean chloride concentrations
and TDS are less than 8 and 300 ppm, respectively. The
low concentrations of chloride in the groundwater may
represent older water from a prior pluvial climate and/or
inltration of surface runoff that accumulates in localized
areas, such as the washes. Flint et al. (2001, 2002)
estimated areal recharge on Yucca Mountain just to the
west of Fortymile Wash and found evidence for net
inltration rates of 0.8 to 9.9 mm/year on the ridge top
(1400 m AMSL), with a mean chloride concentration of
33 ppm, and 1.0 to 1.5 mm/year, with mean chloride
concentration of 48 ppm on the lower side slopes of the
mountain and terrace (~1200 m AMSL), beneath areas
with negligible soil cover. This was associated with
average pore water chloride concentration of 48 ppm
compared with 7 ppm in the groundwater below.

METHODOLOGY
In the rst portion of the study, Nye County boreholes
cuttings were sampled and analysed for sediment chloride
content. The CMB method was applied to the borehole data
to examine historical inltration. The second portion of the
study included (i) a low-cost method for collecting
inltrating runoff from ephemeral streams, consisting of
specially designed lysimeter emplaced at different elevations
Copyright 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

in and around Fortymile Wash and (ii) precipitation and

sediment sampling collected with the lysimeters. Collected
samples were analysed for water chemistry and isotopic
composition. The third portion consisted of analysing the
collected data by geochemical modelling using PHREEQC,
and multivariate statistical analysis of the results.
Borehole drill cuttings data

Proles of chloride concentration provide a qualitative

estimate on downward water moisture ux over long
periods. Borehole drill cutting analyses were performed in
an attempt to characterize the chloride concentrations
through the depth of the extracted sediment prole and
estimate the age dates of the inltrating water by relating
soil chloride content to chloride inux from precipitation
and deposition rates. Soil extracts were obtained from
borehole drill cutting samples that were previously
collected by the Nye County Early Warning Drilling
Program (NC-EWDP) from boreholes (NC-EWDP-22S,
23P, 24P, and 29P) at elevations (<1200 m AMSL),
southeast of Yucca Mountain, north of the Amargosa
River, between Yucca mountain and Fortymile Wash
(Figure 1a, b). Borehole 22S is the closest to Fortymile
Wash in what would appear to be a runoff area with a low
slope of 1%, and it displays the fastest pore velocities of
the boreholes analysed in this work. For this borehole, 93
extract sample data points were available for interpolation. For borehole 23P, east of Fortymile Wash, 12 extract
sample data points were available for analysis. This
borehole is located in an area with a topographic slope of
0.9%, slightly lower than that found at 22S. For borehole
24P, 12 extract sample data points were available for
analysis, and its location presents a slope of 1.2% based
on local topography. The location of borehole 29P is at a
land surface slope of 1.1%, slightly lower than that at
24P, based on local topography. Eleven extract sample
data points were available for analysis for this borehole.
In the previous NC-EWDP drill cutting sample collection, air was used as the primary drilling uid (dry drilling)
to preserve sample integrity (i.e. to minimize disturbance of
the in situ water contents, water potentials, and tracer
signatures) as described by Detty et al. (1993), Sully et al.
(1993), and Tyler et al. (1996). Through the entire drilling
depth, at 5-ft intervals from each other, soil samples were
collected into plastic bags for a 2.5-ft-depth section
representing the drill cutting for that section. Drill cutting
samples were selected for this study in an attempt to
characterize the upper and lower chloride concentrations in
soil (corresponding to the upper bulge and water table
uctuations) and are therefore not evenly spaced throughout
the entire drilling depth. Table I presents a summary of
boreholes information. Drill cutting samples were separated
into two subsamples: The rst one was oven dried to
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2389

EPHEMERAL STREAM CHEMISTRY

Table I. Summary of information for boreholes analysed by chloride mass balance

Borehole
NE-EWDP-22S

NE-EWDP-24P

NE-EWDP-29P

NE-EWDP-23P

868.45
1
144
142
93

850.45
1.2
124
120
12

830.41
1.1
106
96
11

853.49
0.9
130
120
12

Elevation (m AMSL)
Slope (%)
Depth to water (m)
Drilling depth (m)
Number of extracts

determine water content, and the second one was used to

obtain soil extracts. An extraction dilution of 1:1 (1 l of
deionized water per kilogram of soil) was used with a
correction for original water content. Soil extracts were sent
to a commercial laboratory to be analysed for chloride
concentrations following ASTM standards (D4542-95 and
D2216-05).
Chloride mass balance is applied to drill cuttings to
estimate inltrating water age dates. A linear interpolation
of chloride extract concentrations was performed through
each boreholes sampling depth, and ages for two (upper
and lower) chloride loadings through depth at 1-m intervals
were calculated by integrating the concentration over the
depth prole and dividing by the chloride loading
(Equation 1). Chloride chemical mass-balance approach
is based on several simplifying assumptions (Dettinger,
1989; Scanlon, 1991, Scanlon et al., 2006; Wood and
Sanford, 1995; Wood, 1999): (l) one-dimensional, vertical,
downward, piston-type ow; (2) precipitation (wet fall)/
deposition (dry fall) is the only source of chloride, and
direct inltration of precipitation as the sole source of
recharge; (3) mean annual precipitation and chloride
concentration of precipitation remain constant through
time; (4) the steady-state chloride ux carried beneath the
root zone by inltrating water is equal to the chloride ux
from precipitation and dry deposition; and (5) chloride
behaves as a conservative tracer along the ow path, and
uptake by roots and anion exclusion are negligible.
However, the uncertainty in precipitation and chloride
inputs (present and past) limits the precision of long-term
recharge rates and surface age calculations because the
calculations are highly sensitive to precipitation and
chloride inputs, and the selected bulk density values.
h
dt

dz

ClConcentration

kgCl
kgSoil

ClLoading

Soil
h
i
kgCl
m2 year

kgSoil
m3

i
(1)

In these calculations, t refers to age (years) and z is the

depth from ground surface (metres), and soil bulk density
(soil) for the lithologic units of the current area was found
in the range of 1340 and 2040 with a mean of 2000 kg/m3
Copyright 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

as described by Fischer (1992) and Fouty (1989). This

soil bulk density corresponds to alluvium composed of a
combination of silt, clay, clayey sand, well-graded sand,
and gravel and is assumed representative of all boreholes.
Two chloride deposition rates (loadings) obtained from
literature were used to provide approximate upper and
lower calculation limits, and these values are assumed
constant throughout time in lieu of attempting to
compensate for specic uctuations in chloride deposition
and/or precipitation through time. With a lower chloride
loading (LL) of 60 mg/(m2 year), corresponding to contemporary values (Fabryka-Martin et al., 2002), and
considering a 170-mm average precipitation per year
(Liu et al., 2003), an average chloride precipitation
concentration of 0.35 ppm is found, which is in agreement
with values reported by Meijer (2002) for the Kawich
Range sampling network some 150 km north of Yucca
Mountain. With an upper chloride loading (UL) of
107 mg/(m2 year) (Liu et al., 2003), an average chloride
precipitation concentration of 0.62 ppm is found, where the
higher loading corresponds with an attempt to correct for
either greater past chloride loading or a higher past
precipitation with chloride concentration remaining constant, and thus providing an upper limit for our estimates.
Inltrating runoff, precipitation, and sediment sampling

A simple lysimeter (Figure 2a) was designed to collect

inltrating runoff that has contacted and leached some of
the top sandy soil in order to measure its chemical
characteristics and better understand its chemical evolution as the water moved from precipitation to inltrating
runoff near Fortymile Wash. The construction started by
threading exible polyethylene tubing (6.35 mm outer
diameter) through a hole made 25 mm below the top edge
of the 9.5-l bucket, to provide access to the inside of the
lysimeter once it is buried (Figure 2a). The inner edge of
the tubing was xed to the bucket bottom with an epoxy
adhesive, and the outer end blocked with a plug to
prevent tubing clogging. The completed devices were
soaked in tap water for 24 h before rinsing with distilled
water to leach potential contaminants from the materials.
In total, 12 lysimeters lled with washed silica sand
(Figure 2b) were installed, between January and SeptemHydrol. Process. 29, 23852401 (2015)

2390

O. M. AL-QUDAH, A. WOOCAY AND J. C. WALTON

Figure 2. Photographic sequence of the lysimeter and sediment methods: (a) a polyethylene tubing (6.35 mm outer diameter) threaded through a hole
made at 25 mm below the top edge of the 9.5-l bucket and glued to the bottom of the bucket; (b) partially lled lysimeter with washed silica sand; (c)
lysimeter was installed at 2527 cm below the undisturbed surface; the gap between the lysimeter top and the ground surface is about 2550 mm; (d)
fully lled lysimeter with washed silica sand after emplacement, and the tube is exiting the device to provide access to the inside of the lysimeter; (e)
location of two lysimeter after emplacement at site S-8A2; (f) runoff in the Fortymile Wash after a storm occurred in December 2010; (g and h) Fortymile
Wash after a storm event occurred in December 2010 and shows the lysimeters buried under alluvium materials that were transported and accumulated
by the runoff; (i) inltrating runoff sampling process; (j) eld measurement of alkalinity, pH, and EC for precipitation and inltrating runoff samples; (k)
sediment samples; and (l) leaching sediment to obtain its chemical characteristics

ber 2009 at elevations ranging from 600 to 1200 m AMSL

in and around Fortymile Wash. The lysimeters were
distributed in the study area as (Figure 1b): Lysimeters
Copyright 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

S-15 and S-16-ALT were located in the Topopah Wash

122 m and 2.96 km up-gradient from the Amargosa
Valley Science and Technology Park, respectively.
Hydrol. Process. 29, 23852401 (2015)

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EPHEMERAL STREAM CHEMISTRY

Lysimeter S-29 was located in the west side of the Striped

Hills, 0.43 km down-gradient from US highway 95. Sites
for lysimeters S-6A and S-6B-2 were located to the south
of the pole line road, middle channel of Fortymile Wash.
Lysimeters S-6A-2 and S-6B were located to the south of
the pole line road, western channel of Fortymile Wash.
Lysimeter S-7A was located to the south of US highway
95, eastern channel of Fortymile Wash. Lysimeter S-7B
was located to the south of US highway 95, western
channel of Fortymile Wash. Lysimeter S-8A1 was located
in the western branch of eastern channel of Fortymile
Wash. Lysimeter S-8A2 was located in the eastern branch
of eastern channel of Fortymile Wash. Lysimeter S-8B
was located in the western channel of Fortymile Wash.
The site locations were selected in the active channels and
near Nye County wells and boreholes. The lysimeters were
placed at locations where water was likely to pool and where
sufcient depth of sediment facilitated digging a hole for
emplacement (Figure 2c, d), and away from cemented or
semi-consolidated layers, if present. To the extent possible,
lysimeters were placed in low-gradient (depositional)
portions of the arroyo to minimize washing out during
storms (Figure 2e). The top of the lysimeter was 2550 mm
below the undisturbed surface of the arroyo, and this gap
was covered with washed silica sand (Figure 2c, d). In each
location, a T-post (fence post) was installed to identify the
site and serve as the mount for a rain gauge. The T-post was
emplaced beside the wash to prevent it from being washed
away during a storm event (Figure 2f).
Three storm events occurred during the study period,
namely in February 2009, January 2010, and December
2010, with average precipitation rates (in mm/event and
mm/h), respectively, of 23.9, 4.1; 39.9, 3.8; and 47.8, 3.3
(CEMP, 2013). The storm events were local, with runoff
only occurring in stretches of the channels rather than
being continuous from distant highlands. However, the
storm events were enough to produce surface runoff and
lysimeter inltration in the washes (Figure 2g, h).

Samples collected from each site location included

inltrating runoff (lysimeter water), precipitation, and
sediment. As the volume of inltrating water collected
after storm events was variable, a decision criterion was
established to evaluate if the amount of water stored in the
samplers was enough to analyse all the required chemical
parameters, and the laboratory used for analyses was
contacted to determine minimum water sample volume
requirements, which then led to the determination of
sampling priority on the basis of data importance and volume
requirements (Table II). Inltrating runoff and precipitation
samples were collected, preserved, and shipped on the basis
of Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and
Wastewater (Clescerl et al., 2000). Subsequent to arrival at
each location (within a week after each storm occurred), (1)
the rain gauge reading was recorded, and the collected water
was poured into a high-density polyethylene bottle and then
sealed for future analyses; (2) a peristaltic pump was attached
to the lysimeter, and the rst 25 ml of sample was purged; (3)
after purging was completed, inltrating water samples were
collected and sealed in corresponding bottle types consistent
with the required chemical constituents (Figure 2i); (4) for
samples requiring ltering, prior to collection, a clean piece
of silicone tubing was installed on the peristaltic pump along
with a new large-capacity (0.45 m) lter on the discharge
end of the tubing; (5) after sampling was completed, the
remaining water (if any) from the lysimeter was purged to
provide space for collection during the next runoff event;
and (6) alkalinity, pH, and electrical conductivity for
precipitation and inltrating runoff samples were measured
in the eld at each site location after sampling was
completed (Figure 2j).
The sediment samples in this study represent a leaching
of the shallow sediment in the stream bottom, which is
one type of sediment that runoff water will interact with
before inltrating. Sediment samples (Figure 2k) were
collected from each site at the time of lysimeter
installations, and shortly after each of the storm events.

Table II. Sample collection in order of priority, storage, and shipping information
Analyte
priority

Sample
type

Filter
(yes/no)

Fill level

Typical
bottle Bottle
Preservative size (ml) type

pH, EC, TDS, temp.

No

30 ml

None

50

2
3
4
5

Alkalinity, anions
Metals, cations
NNH3, NO3NO2, total P
Stable isotope ratio
analysis of oxygen
and hydrogen in water

Yes
Yes
Yes
No

Fill completely
Fill completely
To the neck
To the neck

None
HNO3
H2SO4
None

250
250
250
25

Type of
storage

HDPE Analysed in
eld
HDPE Refrigerate
HDPE Refrigerate
HDPE Refrigerate
HDPE Refrigerate

Shipping
instructions
None
Ship with cold packs
None
Ship with cold packs
None

EC, electrical conductivity; TDS, total dissolved solids; HDPE, high-density polyethylene.

Copyright 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Hydrol. Process. 29, 23852401 (2015)

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O. M. AL-QUDAH, A. WOOCAY AND J. C. WALTON

Sediment samples were collected, preserved, and shipped

on the basis of ASTM standards (D4700-91-06; D422095-07). The collected sediment samples were extracted in
the lab according to ASTM (D4542-95), by mixing 2 kg
of sediment with 3.76 l of distilled water, letting the
mixture settle overnight and then separating the leachate
(Figure 2l). The ions that leached from sediments
represent the soluble species from the accumulation of
atmospheric dryfall/dust, evaporite lms from non-runoff
generating precipitation events, and biological input (e.g.
faeces and urine). Additional details of site selection
criteria, lysimeters construction design and emplacement,
and sample collection procedures were previously
documented (Al-Qudah et al., 2010).
Inltrating runoff (lysimeter water), precipitation, and
sediment water (sediment extract) samples were analysed
2+
2
for major anions and cations (Cl, HCO
3 , SO4 , Ca ,
2+
+
+
Mg , K , and Na ) on the basis of Standard Methods for
the Examination of Water and Wastewater (Clescerl et al.,
2000) using inductively coupled plasmamass spectrometry and ion-exchange chromatography machines, whereas water-stable isotopes, oxygen-18 (18O), and deuterium
(2H) were determined in commercial labs.
Geochemical modelling

The computer program PHREEQC is capable of

describing a variety of geochemical processes in aqueous
systems (Parkhurst and Appelo, 1999). PHREEQC was
used for simulating the evolution of inltrating runoff as
precipitation interacts with the sediment, by using a
chosen set of dissolved species and mineral phases in
precipitation, sediment water, and inltrating runoff to
describe oxidationreduction (redox) reactions and thermodynamic equilibrium, including ion exchange, dissolution, and precipitation. PHREEQC was used to calculate
thermodynamic equilibrium saturation indices (SIs) for
mineral species, on the basis of major anion and cation
median concentrations for the set of water types. The SI is
dened as the logarithm of the ratio of the ion activity
product (IAP) of the component ions of the solid in solution
to the solubility product (K) for the solid [SI = log IAP/K].
Redundancy analysis

The multivariate statistical method of redundancy

analysis (RDA) is applied in this study to explore the
complex multivariate relationships in sediment chemistry,
precipitation chemistry, and other variables, on the
resulting runoff chemistry. RDA is similar to canonical
correlation analysis, but it is a form of constrained
ordination that examines how much of the synthetic
variation in one set of (independent) variables explains
the variance of another set of (independent) variables (Sen
et al., 1986; Schervish, 1987; Liu, 1997; Makarenkov and
Copyright 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Legendre, 2002). RDA uses principal components

analysis of the independent variables to form axes, which
are used to explain the dependent variables. The
independent variables were the precipitation and sediment
water major chemistry. The dependent variables were the
runoff chemistry components.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Borehole chloride analysis

Figure 3 shows the chloride concentrations at specic

depths for 93, 12, 12, and 11 available samples,
respectively, from boreholes 22S, 23P, 24P, and 29P.
Near the ground surface, the chloride prole initiated with
low concentrations (at relatively low elevation and greater
slope areas) at boreholes 23P, 24P, and 29P, which reect
repeated ushing by precipitation and surface runoff. In
contrast, borehole 22S started with the maximum chloride
concentrations. After that, each boreholes chloride
prole (except 22S) quickly reaches a maximum
concentration and then drops to low values, forming a
bulge-like curve prole (i.e. at relatively shallow depths),
which is typically observed in arid regions and is
attributed to large amounts of evapotranspiration at the
surface, and reects the changes in net inltration as
previously noted in some arid regions in Australia (e.g.
Allison and Hughes, 1983; Stone, 1992), north Africa (e.g.
Cook et al., 1992), and USA (e.g. Winograd et al., 1988,
1992; Fouty, 1989; Scanlon, 1991; Phillips, 1994). Tyler
et al. (1995, 1996) examined three deep boreholes (>230 m
deep) in southern Nevada (nuclear test site) at an elevation of
1000 m AMSL and also found a soil chloride surface bulge
characteristic of the absence of areal recharge, which, he
explained, is a result of (i) a cessation of recharge to the water
table when the climate of the western USA began to shift
from a cooler and wetter climate to the current arid conditions
(i.e. a net inltration rate that has changed over time); (ii)
signicant non-piston ow; or (iii) a combination of these
two processes.
Below the characteristic chloride bulge and for a
certain period, in boreholes 24P and 29P, the chloride
concentrations show little increase that appears diffuse.
The chloride prole shows a second bulge in boreholes
22S, 23P, and 29P, respectively, at 140, 110, and 95 m,
near the water table. The increase in chloride concentration near the water table could be explained as follows: (i)
is consistent with net evaporation at that location, which
would be supported by net transport of water vapour toward
the surface by vapour diffusion (barometric pumping) as
suggested by Parker (2003), Patterson et al. (1996), Nilson
et al. (1992), and Massmann and Farrier (1992); and/or (ii) it
is accredited to uctuations in the water table that disturb the
Hydrol. Process. 29, 23852401 (2015)

2393

EPHEMERAL STREAM CHEMISTRY

Figure 3. Interpolation of drill cutting chloride extracts from boreholes (a) NC-EWDP-22S, (b) 23P, (c) 24P, and (d) 29P

chloride prole record or to variation in the recharging

conditions (Winograd et al., 1988).
The chloride distributions also differ considerably in
the total mass of chloride within the vadose zone as
topography gradient and area slope differ. The higher
elevation and gradual slope areas (borehole 22S) show
approximately less chloride stored in the vadose zone
than others.
Inltrating water age dating

Integration of the chloride concentration (using Equation 1), from the surface to the available depth and
dividing by assumed chloride loading, yields inltration
dates before-present as shown in Figure 4. Figure 4a
presents borehole NC-EWDP-22S drill cuttings depthage proles. Borehole 22S is the closest to Fortymile
Wash in what would appear to be a runoff area with a low
slope of 1% (with an elevation of 868 m AMSL). For this
borehole, 93 extract sample data points were available for
interpolation and thus provide great condence in the
results. Complete prole calculations for this borehole
present ages between 20 400 and 11 400 years down to a
depth of 140 m, for chloride LL and UL, respectively.
Figure 4bd presents borehole NC-EWDP-23P, 24P, and
29P drill cuttings depth-age proles. Borehole 23P is
located east of Fortymile Wash in an area with a
topographic slope of 0.9%, slightly lower than that found
at 22S. Boreholes 24P and 29P are located in an area with
a topographic slope of 1.2% and 1.1%, respectively, on
the basis of local topography. Calculations present ages
between 55 000 and 31 000, 50 000 and 28 000, and
Copyright 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

57 000 and 32 000 years for chloride LL and UL from the

surface to the total depth of 121, 120, and 106 m,
respectively, for boreholes 23P, 24P, and 29P.
Figure 4 indicates that signicant areal inltration has
not occurred beneath soil adjacent to the wash at borehole
22S for the past ~10 000 years and at boreholes 23P, 24P,
and 29P for the past ~30 000 years, which is in the range
of the suggested recharge period of 20 000 to
120 000 years as presented by Tyler et al. (1996).
Furthermore, topography inducing surface runoff also
inuences CMB. Boreholes located in areas of little or
gradual slope (borehole 22S) would indicate faster
inltration rates than those in areas of greater slope (such
as borehole 24P). This holds despite that age dates will be
underestimated for steeper areas with runoff and
overestimated for atter areas with surface runoff. On
the other hand, boreholes located at high elevation (22S)
seem to have faster inltration rates (younger or fresher
water) than those at low elevation (23P).

Water chemistry
Major ion chemistry. In total, 22 inltrating runoff
(lysimeter water) samples were collected from the
lysimeters after three storms occurred during the study
period, with a sample volume range between 600 and
2300 ml, and a mean of 1420 ml. After the January 2010
storm event, 14 precipitation samples were collected from
rain gauges (one per site); collected samples depth ranged
between 39.4 and 57.1 mm, with a mean of 44.5 mm.
Sixty-two sediment samples were collected from each site
Hydrol. Process. 29, 23852401 (2015)

2394

O. M. AL-QUDAH, A. WOOCAY AND J. C. WALTON

Figure 4. Integration of the chloride mass with depth and estimating inltrating water age dates from boreholes: (a) 22S, (b) 23P, (c) 24P, and (d) 29P

location before and after the storm events between

January 2009 and December 2010.
The major water chemistry for collected inltrating
runoff (lysimeter water), precipitation, and sediment
extract (sediment water) samples (raw values and values
normalized by chloride median concentration for each
category) is summarized in Table III. All categories listed
in this paper (precipitation, sediment water, and inltrating water) for analytes are statistically signicant by
analysis of variance at p < 0.05. Comparison of individual
analyte behaviour between sample types required normalization. Normalization serves several functions: (i) The
sediment sample concentrations are related to the volume
Copyright 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

of leaching water added and must be normalized in order to

compare with other samples; and (ii) chemical evolution
needs to be separated from degree of evaporation.
Once a raindrop is formed, it interacts with atmospheric
gases and dust particles. As soon as precipitation reaches
the ground, the absolute and relative concentrations of the
various constituents are modied to varying degrees by
evaporation, and by interactions with minerals, organic
matter, and gases. Table III shows that (i) inltrating
runoff has the greatest chloride concentrations, followed
by precipitation and then sediment water, which reect
the evaporative concentrations prior to sampling, and the
repeated washing of sediments; (ii) all major cations
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EPHEMERAL STREAM CHEMISTRY

Table III. Median relative and absolute concentration of measured ions

Measured ion

Precipitation

Sediment waters

Lysimeter waters

Cl median (ppm)



(HCO
3 ; HCO3 /Cl ) (median; median ratio)
2
2

(SO4 ; SO4 /Cl ) (median; median ratio)
(Ca2+; Ca2+/Cl) (median; median ratio)
(Mg2+; Mg2+/Cl) (median; median ratio)
(K+; K+/Cl) (median; median ratio)
(Na+; Na+/Cl) (median; median ratio)


(NO
3 ; NO3 /Cl ) (median; median ratio)

1.9
(10.0; 5.3)
(4.0; 2.1)
(3.9; 2.1)
(0.5; 0.3)
(0.6; 0.3)
(1.1; 0.6)
(2.3; 0.1)

1.2
(197.0; 166.0)
(3.5; 3.0)
(35.5; 30.0)
(2.4; 2.0)
(11.0; 9.2)
(7.7; 6.5)
(4.6; 3.8)

6.8
(101.0; 14.0)
(7.3; 1.1)
(24.0; 3.7)
(3.5; 0.5)
(6.4; 1.0)
(8.1; 1.3)
(1.1; 0.2)

increase (relative to chloride) as the precipitation interacts

with sediments and forms runoff, suggesting weathering
reactions of soil minerals; and (iii) all major anions,
bicarbonate, and nitrate-N increase but sulfate does not.
Nitrate-N concentrations increased from precipitation to
inltrating runoff, which reects the leaching of nitrate-N
stored in the sediment from previous storm events as well
as the biological inputs (e.g. faeces and urine) (Walvoord
et al., 2003).
The piper diagram (Figure 5) controls the evaporative
concentrations by examining major ion equivalent ratios
for precipitation, sediment water, and inltrating water.
On the piper diagram, precipitation data are plotted in
zone 8, which indicates that HCO3 , Cl, and Ca2+ were
the dominant ions in Fortymile Wash precipitation, which
reects the dissolution of dry-fall salts. Sediment water
has CaHCO3 dominant facies (zone 7 on the piper
diagram), where sediment water carbonate and bicarbonate dominate sodium and sulfate. There is a range of
cation distributions with most samples dominated by
calcium and magnesium, but a tail of samples ranging
into sodium and potassium dominance. Interaction of
precipitation with sediments increases the carbonate
concentration relative to chloride and creates considerable
scattering in the sulfate data, suggesting evaporative
concentration. Moreover, the piper plot shows that
inltrating runoff chemistry samples are diluted, and its
chemistry is intermediate between the chemistry of
precipitation and sediment water, and more associated
to the sediment water with CaHCO3 water type, as
anticipated. This is indicated by converging arrows on the
piper plot showing sediment water and precipitation
chemistries combining to form inltrating runoff, which
follows the tail of sediment water compositions.
Simulations with the PHREEQC code (Table IV) indicate
that the precipitation samples were undersaturated with all
minerals considered. PHREEQC simulations on sediment
waters were performed assuming all the leach water was
evaporated down to measured in situ moisture content
prior to calculating the SIs. In this context, supersaturation indicates that the supersaturated minerals were likely
dissolved by the leach water, mimicking the process that
Copyright 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

would occur when streambed sediments interact with

runoff water. SIs obtained for sediment water show
supersaturation with calcite, dolomite, and chlorite. However, in the real processes, alkalinity appears to be related to
silicate weathering rather than dissolution of carbonates.
Alkalinity exceeds that which can be accounted for by the
Ca2+ and Mg2+ concentrations in those samples; alkalinity
can come from dissolution of carbonates and/or weathering
of silicate minerals (White, 1979):
MCO3 M2 CO3 2
Silicate rockM H2 CO3 Silicate rock
H M HCO
3

(2)
(3)

The near equilibrium of inltrating runoff with CaMg

carbonates suggests rapid reversible dissolution of these
minerals from the sediment/silicate weathering giving
higher Ca2+, Mg2+, and alkalinity in inltrating runoff
relative to precipitation. Undersaturation with silicate
minerals in the sediment water such as albite, chrysotile,
illite, K-feldspar, sepiolite, and talc is consistent with
irreversible silicate weathering leading to increases of
Na+, K+, and Mg2+ concentrations in inltrating runoff
relative to precipitation. Secondary mineral formation in
inltrating runoff suggested by supersaturation with
chlorite, montmorillonite, illite, K-feldspar, and talc
appears to be occurring more slowly, allowing the
sediments to be net sources of most cations. In these
analyses, sulfate shows a scattered pattern as inltrating
runoff produced from precipitationsediment interaction,
which could result from oxidation of sulfur-containing
minerals. Reactions among aqueous species that occur
within the same oxidation state of the elements involved
(e.g. CO2/HCO3 /CO3 2; SO4 2/HSO4 ) are rapid, and
equilibrium can be assumed; in contrast, equilibrium is
usually not attained between aqueous species with


differing oxidation states (e.g. SO2
4 /HS , HCO3 /CH4).
Comparison of inltrating runoff with precipitation and
sediment water (Table III, piper plot, and PHREEQC data)
after compensating for evaporative concentration indicates the following: (i) calcium, magnesium, potassium,
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2396

O. M. AL-QUDAH, A. WOOCAY AND J. C. WALTON

Figure 5. Piper diagram for precipitation, inltrating runoff (lysimeter waters), and sediment water samples, showing water chemical characteristics with
chemical type denition. Symbol size is proportional to TDS content

Table IV. PHREEQC SIs for inltrating runoff and soil water
Phase
Albite
Ca-montmorillonite
Calcite
Chlorite (14A)
Chrysotile
Dolomite
Gypsum
Halite
Illite
K-feldspar
Sepiolite
Talc

Formula

Lysimeter waters (SI)

Sediment waters (SI)

NaAlSi3O8
Ca0.165Al2.33Si3.67O10(OH)2
CaCO3
Mg5Al2Si3O10(OH)8
Mg3Si2O5(OH)4
CaMg(CO3)2
CaSO4 : 2H2O
NaCl
K0.6Mg0.25Al2.3Si3.5O10(OH)2
KAlSi3O8
Mg2Si3O7.5OH : 3H2O
Mg3Si4O10(OH)2

1.77
4.22
0.21
1.97
2.43
0.01
2.78
8.46
4.07
1.55
1.83
1.27

8.35
1.9
0.97
0.81
2.02
1.11
3
3.94
1.54
2.09
3.22
0.31

SI, saturation index.

and sodium are leached from the sediments; (ii) sulfate is

deposited on the sediments; and (iii) the alkalinity
increase comes from dissolution of carbonates and silicate
weathering.
Water-stable isotopes. The relationship between regional stable isotopes (2H and 18O) of inltrating runoff, and
rainfall in Fortymile Wash is shown in Figure 6. Lighter
waters (have less of the heavier isotopes and are thus more
Copyright 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

negative) are often associated with higher altitudes, cooler

climatic regimes, or higher latitudes and fall in the lower
left portion of the global meteoric water line (GMWL)
(Davisson et al., 1999; Izbicki, 2004); heavier waters are
often associated with lower altitudes, warmer climatic
regimes, or lower latitudes and fall in the upper-right
portion (Davisson et al., 1999; Izbicki, 2004). Previous
work in southern Nevada showed that rainfall collected in
the Amargosa Desert dened a local meteoric water line
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EPHEMERAL STREAM CHEMISTRY

Figure 6. Stable isotopes of inltrating runoff and rainfall in Fortymile

Wash, NV. Rainfall stable isotopes data were obtained from Ingraham
et al. (1991) and Benson and Klieforth (1989). GMWL, global meteoric
water line; LMWL, local meteoric water line

(LMWL) with the equation 2H = 6.6 * 18O  7.2 (Benson

and Klieforth, 1989; Ingraham et al., 1991). Most of the
precipitation events in southern Nevada that conform to the
GMWL have mean isotopic values of less than 9.0 in
18O and 60 in 2H (Davisson et al., 1999). Ingraham
et al. (1991) reported that stable isotope values of modern
precipitation in Nevada decrease with increasing latitude
and altitude.
Inltrating runoff samples have 2H in the range of
114.5 and 77.3 with an average of 93.5, whereas
18O ranges between 15.8 and 9.3 with an average of
12.23. These results show that stable isotope
composition of runoff shifts below the GMWL and
LMWL and typical mean rainfall values, which suggests
short rainfall events and net evaporative concentration of
the pore and runoff waters. Stable isotope values for both
rainfall and runoff fall close to and below the GMWL, but
surface runoff inltration samples exhibit a broader
spread parallel to the GMWL.
Interpretation of RDA results

The rst two environmental variable axes formed in the

RDA are plotted as a biplot as shown in Figure 7. The
independent variables, which are used to form the axes,
are graphed with solid lines where the lower case prexes
s and p stand for sediment and precipitation,
respectively, whereas the dependent runoff variables are
graphed with dashed lines and are shown without
prexes. The cosine of each arrow direction equals the
correlation coefcient of the variable with the rst axis,
Copyright 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

2397

Figure 7. Biplot graph shows the rst two environmental variable axes of
the redundancy analysis, where p is precipitation and s is sediment
water. Dashed lines represent runoff, and solid lines represent independent
variables

and the sine of the arrow direction represents the

correlation coefcient with the second axis. Very short
arrows, representing little correlation, were deleted from
the gure to provide greater clarity. The variance of
variables not shown is not explained by the rst two axes,
so no important information is lost from the graph.
The result is statistically signicant at p < 0.01 and
explains 61% of the variance in the runoff chemistry;
51% of the variance is explained by the rst axis, 8.4% by
the second axis, and the remainder in the other axes (not
shown). Runoff species that were not explained by the
rst two axes are not included in the plot. The rst axis is
dominated by precipitation chemistry with carbonate
alkalinity in the positive direction and precipitation
potassium, magnesium, and sulfate in the negative
direction but with only weak correlations. The second
axis is dominated by sediment chemistry, especially
sediment sulfate and sodium. Precipitation alkalinity
predicts runoff alkalinity and is inversely correlated with
runoff TDS. Runoff calcium is positively associated with
precipitation calcium and negatively associated with runoff
(and sediment) sodium. Runoff sodium behaves differently
and is associated with sediment sodium in the second axis.
Runoff chloride is positively associated with sediment
chloride but is poorly explained.
Summary of topographic variation of chloride concentrations

Figure 8 presents a schematic of chloride proles that

provides an interpretation of the inltration data in and
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2398

O. M. AL-QUDAH, A. WOOCAY AND J. C. WALTON

Figure 8. Schematic of chloride proles in and around Fortymile Wash, NV. *Source: Claassen (1985) and Flint et al. (2001, 2002)

around Fortymile Wash. Along the mountain crest (at

high elevations >1200 m AMSL) such as the heavily
studied top of Yucca Mountain, deep inltration (areal
based inltration) of water occurs with higher rates of
recharge after evaporative concentration in a manner at
least partially compatible with the CMB method,
understanding that some fraction of the chloride is likely
to be removed periodically by surface runoff.
In the lower desert areas (alluvial lled valleys with
elevations near 1000 m AMSL), the 10 000+ year
accumulation of chloride in shallow subsurface (borehole
samples) indicates that (i) the low concentration of
chloride near the surface is consistent with periodic
removal by precipitation and surface runoff; (ii) the
bulge-like curve prole at relatively shallow depths is
typically observed in arid regions and is attributed to large
amounts of evapotranspiration at the surface; (iii) below
root depth inltration is not generally present, which
suggests accumulation of chloride in the shallow
sediments; and (iv) the spike of chloride at the water
Copyright 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

table is consistent with net evaporation at that location,

which would be supported by net transport of water
vapour toward the surface by vapour diffusion and
barometric pumping and/or is accredited to uctuations
in the water table that disturb the chloride prole record
or to variation in the recharging conditions.
Lysimeter data support inltration of low chloride
concentration runoff in the washes. Surface runoff
appears to wash salts from the land surface, potentially
perturbing the chloride balance in a manner that is largely
indeterminate. Complete and/or partial evaporation of
non-runoff producing precipitation prior to being
captured by a runoff producing event likewise unlinks
the chloride and isotopes of water data. This happens
because complete evaporation of the water will erase the
isotopic evidence from some precipitation events, whereas
partially evaporated precipitation can mix with the runoff
producing waters. The chloride remains in the soil even
after complete evaporation of the water. Despite being
located signicantly below the elevation of no net areal
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2399

EPHEMERAL STREAM CHEMISTRY

recharge, at an elevation with net deposition of chloride in

the vadose zone, ephemeral stream chloride concentrations
at the study site are signicantly below that of the recharge
in adjacent highlands.
In CMB estimates, the aquifers chloride concentration
reects the degree to which the water has been
concentrated by evaporation. In some situations, these
approximations can be useful; however, in desert regions,
limitations of the chemical mass balance include the
following assumptions: Chloride and water move together; its inability to assess the spatial variability of recharge
within a recharge area, an inability to differentiate local
recharge versus recharge emanating from inter-basin ux,
and lack of inclusion of inherent uncertainty may not be
applicable for fractured rock under shallow soils because
the method assumes piston ow in porous media
(Dettinger, 1989; Scanlon and Dutton, 2000; Russell
and Minor, 2002; Aishlin and McNamara, 2011). When
areal recharge is present, chloride and water will move
together, and chemical mass balance can be applied,
perhaps with corrections to reect chloride transport in
run-on and runoff waters (Wood and Sanford, 1995;
Wood, 1999). When recharge is focused and net
accumulation of chloride is occurring in soils and
sediments, the mass balance becomes problematic. Chloride often accumulates in the soil in non-runoff-producing
storms when the associated water returns to the atmosphere
by evaporation and evapotranspiration but the salts remain.
During runoff creating precipitation events, the initial
rainfall soaks into the ground, transporting the salts
downward, whereas subsequent precipitation increasingly
forms surface runoff but does not fully contact the
accumulated salts. This partitioning process leads to the
characteristic large bulge in soil chloride content at depths
of usually less than 6 m in desert soil (Fouty, 1989; Phillips,
1994; Savard, 1998; Flint et al., 2002) rather than a more
uniform prole characteristic of net inltration. The change
in inltration/runoff fraction during a precipitation event
(Horton inltration) tends to separate the chloride, which
migrates primarily with the initial inltrating precipitation
from the water in subsequent precipitation, which tends to
go increasingly toward runoff.

CONCLUSION
Ephemeral stream runoff generated from three small,
localized, storms was measured at 12 stations. The runoff
was generated and measured below the elevation of no net
areal inltration as measured by borehole chloride.
Runoff composition, despite its low desert origin in a
zone of soluble salts accumulation, was of high quality
with low chloride and low dissolved solids. The runoff
water major ion composition was intermediate between that
Copyright 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

of precipitation and leached stream bottom sediments. The

observations are consistent with the Horton inltration
model where the initial precipitation inltrates into the
shallow subsurface, taking accumulated chloride downward,
and subsequent precipitation creates runoff from newly
leached surcial sediments. Most of the non-streambed
inltrating water subsequently evaporates or transpires,
concentrating salts at shallow depths in the relatively coarse
clay poor sediments, but not at the surface. The result is a
borehole chloride concentration bulge and lower than
anticipated salinity in the runoff water. The chloride of the
runoff water matches that of underlying deep (and old)
groundwater, and the major ion composition is consistent
with inltration to groundwater, although this study did not
investigate further inltration. Chloride migration in the
study area is disassociated from water migration, making the
CMB method inappropriate at these low elevations.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Funding for this research was provided by Nye County, NV,

through a grant from the US Department of Energy ofce of
Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. We thank John
Klenke, Roger McRae, and the rest of the Nye County Staff
for assistance with lysimeters construction, installation, and
sampling; Dr Dale Hammermeister for initiating chloride
prole sampling at Nye County; and Dr David Borrok
(Geological Department, UTEP) and Dr Zhuping Sheng
(Texas Agrilife Research Center) and their research groups for
their help and support with chemical analysis. We also thank
the Center for Environmental Resource Management of The
University of Texas at El Paso for their funding and support.

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