Irrigated field characterization at Fort Irwin National Training Center, San Bernardino County, California, 2018-2020

The U.S. Army Fort Irwin National Training Center (NTC), approximately 35 miles north-northeast of Barstow, California, obtains all of its potable water supply from three groundwater basins (Irwin, Langford, and Bicycle Basins) within the NTC boundaries. In these basins, groundwater withdrawals exceed natural recharge, resulting in water-level declines. However, managed aquifer recharge using treated wastewater has offset water-level declines in Irwin Basin. Additionally, localized water-quality changes have occurred in some parts of Irwin Basin as a result of human activities (for example, wastewater disposal practices, landscape irrigation, and (or) leaking pipes). As part of a research study in cooperation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) collected eight electrical resistivity tomography surveys on irrigated fields in Irwin Basin. Borehole geophysical logs were collected in three monitoring well sites near one of the irrigated fields.