Modeling multiaquifer wells with MODFLOW

Multiaquifer wells, i.e., wells that are open across more than one aquifer, can have a profound effect on the hydraulics of a ground water system. These wells change the physical system by establishing direct hydraulic links between otherwise isolated strata. Several methods are available to simulate multiaquifer wells in the context of comprehensive ground water flow simulators. In this paper, we review four methods to represent multiaquifer wells with the widely used code MODFLOW. These methods include a specialized code developed, but never formally released, by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Multi-Aquifer Well (MAW1) Package. An expanded implementation of the techniques in the MAW1 Package has been incorporated in the Multi-Node Well Package released recently by the USGS (Halford and Hanson 2002). We examine the performance of the methods in the context of a benchmarking study against the analytical solutions of Papadopulos (1966) and Sokol (1963). Our results demonstrate that results obtained with the MAW1 Package closely match exact solutions for pumping and nonpumping conditions, using both coarse and refined grids.