Tag Archive for: Groundwater

California’s Water Shortage

A new paper published in Nature Climate Change, by NASA water scientist James Famiglietti, presents the chilling reality of California’s ongoing drought crisis. “The Global Groundwater Crisis,” uses satellite data to measure the depletion of the world’s aquifers, and summarizes the effects this has on the environment.

These aquifers contain groundwater that more than 2 billion individuals rely on as their primary source of water. Groundwater is also essential, as it is one of the main sources we rely on to irrigate food crops. In times of drought, the lack of rain and snow results in less surface water (the water that settles in lakes, streams, and rivers). Thus, farmers must rely on available groundwater to irrigate their crops, leading to rapid depletion in areas of high farming concentration.

California’s Central Valley has been one of the most effected regions in the state. The map below depicts groundwater withdrawals in California during the first three years of the state’s ongoing drought.

According to James Famiglietti, “California’s Sacramento and San Joaquin river basins have lost roughly 15 cubic kilometers of total water per year since 2011.”  That means “more water than all 38 million Californians use for domestic and municipal supplies annually—over half of which is due to groundwater pumping in the Central Valley.”

As more water is pumped from the aquifers, things can only get worse. As this trend continues, wells will have to be dug deeper, resulting in increased pumping costs. This, in turn, will lead to a higher salt contents, which inhibits crop yields and can eventually cause soil to lose productivity altogether. Over time, Famiglietti writes, “inequity issues arise because only the relatively wealthy can bear the expense of digging deeper wells, paying greater energy costs to pump groundwater from increased depths and treating the lower-quality water that is often found deeper within aquifers.” This problem is already apparent in California’s Central Valley.  Some low-income residents are forced to let their wells go dry, while many other farmers are forced to irrigate with salty water pumped from deep in the aquifer.

The lesson we can learn from Famiglietti’s research is that “Groundwater is being pumped at far greater rates than it can be naturally replenished, so that many of the largest aquifers on most continents are being mined, their precious contents never to be returned.”  This problem of diminishing groundwater is perpetuated, due the lack of forethought, regulation, or research concerning this water source. Famiglietti contends that if current trends hold, “groundwater supplies in some major aquifers will be depleted in a matter of decades.”

Without any change of practices, we can expect steeper droughts and more demand for water. Famiglietti suggests that if we ever plan on getting the situation under control, we must start carefully measuring groundwater and treat it like the precious resource that it is. However, if the globe continues on this path without any adjustment, it will most likely result in civil uprising and international violent conflict in the water-stressed regions of the world.

Water Scarcity Shines Spotlight on the Fracking Industry

The World Resources Institute (WRI) has released a report that highlights the potential for water scarcity to put a halt on fracking among the world’s top 20 shale countries.

In one of these countries—the United States—fracking has been used for years. However, new technology has enabled companies to drill deeper and horizontally, allowing fracking in more populated areas than ever before. These modern fracking techniques require millions more gallons per well of water, resulting in millions more gallons of contaminated wastewater. This increased amount of water usage results in two major causes for concern: water scarcity, and groundwater contamination.

Adding to this concern, the WRI report states that 38 percent of the world’s shale resources are found in areas that are water barren or “under high to extremely high levels of water stress”, and 40 percent of countries with the largest shale reserves have severely limited freshwater sources. With the spotlight being shined brighter than ever on fracking’s relationship with water, the WRI has compiled a list of actions for these operations to take in order to help preserve the integrity of water supplies. The list is made up of four recommendations.

First, the WRI suggests conducting water risk assessments to understand local water availability and reduce business risk. Next, increase transparency and engage with local regulators, communities, and industry to minimize uncertainty and ensure adequate water governance to guarantee the security of the water and reduce risks. The last action the WRI recommends is minimizing freshwater use and engaging in corporate water stewardship to reduce impacts on water availability.

Current findings and water shortages suggest an urgent need for improved monitoring and transparency for operations within the fracking industry. Using a centralized system for managing crucial fracking information can increase transparency, improve compliance with current regulations, and better protect the quality and quantity of the world’s water supplies.

Droughts Reinforce California’s Need for Water Management Improvements

California, also known as the Golden State, has many well-known qualities that attribute to its reputation. Many times, these qualities refer to accomplishments or physical attributes that serve as superlatives the state can claim as its own. Some examples include having the ninth largest economy in the world, and containing the highest and lowest points in the continental U.S.

Another title that California can claim is the state with the most variable climate in the U.S. – a title that also comes with some consequences.

Possibly the most significant consequence is California’s need to become resourceful with its water supply- not entirely surprising, given the drought it’s been experiencing all summer. Droughts, which unfortunately occur on a fairly frequent basis, cause the state to rely heavily on groundwater. Estimates conclude that California may rely on this source for up to 65% of its water needs.

However, California is the only state that doesn’t regulate groundwater, meaning that many of these groundwater sources are over-pumped, which can cause serious, permanent damages such as subsidence (the ground sinking), and destroyed aquifers.

What many environmental experts believe California may need is an increase on both federal and state-level regulation when it comes to water. Some suggest they should look to Australia as a model, who after their own devastating drought strongly reinforced that water is a public good, and publicly owned, in their new laws on water rights. This aggressive move toward statewide water efficiency standards is seen as a great first step, and pairs well with the need for groundwater pumping regulation, a diversified water portfolio, focus on community-based water storage, and upgraded water infrastructure, among others.

If California were to answer the call for stricter regulation on water use, it would also need a way to manage monitoring practices in order to successfully abide by these new regulations. Water quality management software is available and could potentially be a piece to the puzzle of solving the state’s water crisis.

The first bill to regulate groundwater is currently making its way through the law-making process, and only time will tell if this new water policy will set the stage for better water management techniques.

Latest version of proposed regulation changes on hydrofracking expected this week

It’s no secret that hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, has been a popular topic for debate in recent years. Another occurrence revolving around this that has garnered support from some, and opposition from others, is Texas’ oil and gas regulatory agency, the Railroad Commission, updating its rules to address all aspects of the drilling process.

The latest version of the proposed rule changes is expected this week, and will be the largest revamping of Texas well construction regulations since the 1970s. These rules are important to ensure that toxic, fracking-related fluids do not leak into aquifers due to poor construction of oil and gas wells. These regulations will require examinations of things such as the quality of the protective cement placed between layers of pipe in a well, and a pressure test for the pipes themselves.

Keeping with the controversial theme around hydrofracking, some say the rule changes are too restrictive, and others say they aren’t enough. But most agree that hydrofracking does have the potential to contaminate groundwater if not performed correctly.

The contamination of groundwater can occur from faulty drilling or well completion. For the natural gas industry to ensure this doesn’t happen and to stay in compliance with these new regulations, it must keep up with an ongoing monitoring of site conditions and air emissions, management of production water, and the remediation of adverse environmental impacts: all of which involve the collection and analysis of large quantities of complex data.

Owners of hydrofracking sites and drilling companies need to take advantage of existing software tools to better organize their hydrofracking waste and water quality data. By using SaaS based software like Locus’ EIM to organize, manage, validate, visualize, store, and report this information, they can effectively demonstrate that this drilling can be done safely and transparently.

Fracking Under Fire

The Securities and Exchange Commission is asking oil and gas companies in the US to provide it with detailed information—including chemicals used and efforts to minimize environmental impact—about their use of hydrofracking.

The federal government’s investor-and-markets watchdog is stepping into the heated environmental debate surrounding hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” according to government and industry officials, even as state and federal environmental officials have begun to bring greater pressure on the industry. The process, which involves pumping water, chemicals and sand underground to free difficult-to-reach natural gas in shale basins, has come the center stage of political and environmental discussions.

At the same time the New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is recommending a one-year moratorium on the hydraulic fracturing, after conditionally vetoing legislation that would have permanently banned the practice.

“Fracking” as it is often known, has provoked a fierce battle between environmentalists, who see it as a threat to public health, particularly drinking water, and natural-gas companies, which argue it is safe, and an economic windfall to …

EPA Calls for Stricter Drinking-Water Standards

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is planning to tighten standards for four water contaminants that can cause cancer as part of a new strategy to toughen drinking-water regulation.

EPA said it will start rulemakings to revise standards for two contaminants used in industrial or textile processing, tetracholorethylene and trichloroethylene, within the year. The EPA will follow that rulemaking by setting stricter standards for epichlorohydrin and acrylamide, which can contaminate drinking water through the water-treatment process.
Speaking at a conference of the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said her agency is now developing a broad new set of strategies to strengthen public health protection from contaminants in drinking water.

“To confront emerging health threats, strained budgets and increased needs—today’s and tomorrow’s drinking water challenges—we must use the law more effectively and promote new technologies,” she said.

Ms. Jackson said the agency would now address contaminants as a group rather than individually, saying the current process is too time-consuming and fails to take advantage of cost-effective programs and technology. She said the EPA would also help to foster new technologies, use existing laws more stringently and partner with states to share data from public-water systems.

The agency is also assessing 14 other contaminants, including law and copper, chromium, fluoride, arsenic, atrazine and perchlorate.