Exploration for Saltwater Supply for Shrimp Aquaculture, Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico

Abstract

The University of Arizona's Environmental Research Laboratory, with the Universidad de Sonora, has operated a research station at Puerto Peñasco, on the northeastern Gulf of California, since 1962. Controlled-environment shrimp aquaculture, the Laboratory's most recent research interest, requires a large, dependable supply of filtered, temperate seawater. A University Water-Supply Study Team explored for a supply in an 850-hectare site near the Estero Marua for a proposed ten-hectare shrimp farm. The study included geological, geophysical, and hydrological investigations, and consideration of groundwater, Gulf, estuarine, and combined seawater sources. A thick, fine sand, in the study area, has a very low permeability, contains highly saline water, and could sustain low yielding wells. A thin, coquinoid beachrock, along the Gulf coast near the study area, has a high permeability, contains seawater, and could sustain high yielding wells. Gulf and estuarine water sources have unacceptable temperature ranges, though they could be utilized if mixed with groundwater, stored, and insulated. Recommendations include: drilling, testing, and analysis of coquina; modeling of groundwater heat flow, water-quality effects, and potential well-field designs and impacts for beachrock development; analyzing well design and performance; relaxing temperature and salinity constraints; reusing aquacultural wastewater; and reducing water demand.