Sunday is a time for reading.  Actually, I spent yesterday kind-of sailing, as described in a separate piece below.  I also cleaned out the attic and found some of my old text books on groundwater.  Last evening I reread them, and here is a review of some classics that reward attention:  

Dynamics of Fluids in Porous Media by Jacob Bear provides an in-depth description of fluid flow in porous media such as soils and rocks at the near-microscopic level.  It derives and examines all the equations you could ever need to tackle academic and practical issues in groundwater at mines. From Darcy’s law in one-dimension, through permeability tensors in three-dimensions, to unsaturated flow in anisotropic media, it is all here. My 1972 copy was, of course, written before the advent of computers that could solve any of the equations or generate flow nets. So it was fun and historically instructive to re-browse through the final chapter on the use of electrical analogues in solving real-time flow problems. We can only be thankful for computers, but we must never loose sight of the fundamental principles that are the heart and soul of the physical phenomena that we reduce to numerical analysis and reams of data printout.

Seepage, Drainage, and Flow Nets by Harry R. Cedergren is still my all time favorite. I started with the first edition and now consult the third edition. It is readable, covers the basics and the details in practical terms, and will leave you well informed. It is written for civil engineers and perforce focuses on dams, levees, foundations, soil slopes, roads, airfields, and structures. But so much of what it contains is so informative and entertaining that I am sure you will learn and enjoy as much as I do every time I return to it.

Groundwater and Seepage by Milton E. Harr covers the definitive mathematical treatment of every form of groundwater seepage problem. It all reminds me how luck we are now to have computers that solve most of these problems effortlessly via finite elements. But the mathematics and graphical methods that were formulated in the time before computers to solve those difficult seepage problems, now may be enjoyed for their shear beauty and intricacy. And maybe they will help you build up a deeper understanding of the mechanics and geometry of groundwater flow around and into mines and hence build up the judgment you will need to apply principles to practice.

Rock Slope Engineering by E. Hoek and J.W. Bray introduced me to seepage in rock masses at mines. I looked up my 1974 printing to remind me of what I learnt then and compare it to what I know now. That volume cost me all of five pounds. I guarantee that if you can find the original volume or one of the many reprintings or electronic versions, you will be well rewarded to read the chapter on groundwater flow in rock masses—for it pertains directly to mines and is written in clear and direct prose.