FDNSC Water Awareness

Groundwater Depletion                                                                           Kate Donnelly

Aquifers are like huge underground lakes. The water in aquifers is called underground water. Underground water provides half of all the drinking water in the U.S. Over 50 billion gallons a day is pumped out of the aquifers. When the rate that water is pumped put of an aquifer gets to the rate at which it re-charges, the aquifer will be affected by groundwater depletion.

Now, as the demand for water has increased all over the world, the pumping rate of groundwater has increased, which has caused groundwater depletion to also increase. The levels of water that are in aquifers are dropping at a constant rate, and at some point in time in some places, they may not be able to provide a necessary life long supply of water. An aquifer that originally held 4 trillion tons of water, is now 50% depleted.

There are many ways that Aquifers can suffer from groundwater depletion:

• Aquifers that are on the coast that are experiencing constant pumping could suffer saltwater invasion, because salt water becomes drawn in to take the place of freshwater. Saltwater invasion has already become a problem in New Jersey, New York, Georgia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Florida, S. California, etc.
• Water that is being drawn into an aquifer to come and take the place of water lost to constant pumping may be of poorer quality, or of have different chemicals. Because it’s chemically different, this water may cause a chemical reaction in the aquifer which could arouse naturally-occurring contaminants. Etc.

One of the causes of groundwater depletion is we are not conserving our water. In order to decrease groundwater depletion we need to start having more efficiency in our water use, we also need to start re-using our water. Also, another cause of having low water availability in many other regions is linked to the decreasing forest cover and soil degrading.

One way to fix groundwater depletion is to have a resource exchange solution could reduce groundwater pumping big time and allow the aquifer to re-charge over time. This is a short-term solution, and we need to start coming up with long-term solutions.

Bibliography

www.peaktoprairie.com

www.jnvenvis.nic.in/subject/freashwater/groundwater.htm

April 23rd, 2010

There is a slight breeze and sunny weather. There was a lot of noise from the birds chirping. The creek was running at a slow pace maybe because of the wind. There was a lot of mud on the bottom which showed unhealthiness.

4-23-10

I am sitting in the sun on the benches attached to the bridge. To my left there is a creek, it has very few rocks and a lot of dirt in the bottom. The water is only moving because of the wind. There’s no flow, or any insects or fish.

The park seems pretty clean, I only  see one piece of litter from where I’m sitting.

On the right side, the river connects under the bridge and it seems to be flowing MUCH better, maybe because its more exposed and there is coconut meshing around it. There is culvert rocks helping guide the water. The farther the river goes the more rocks and flow-age there is. There’s no weeds around it the left side of the river. I still see no bugs or fish though.  I’m surprised there’s not much  litter, especially on the right side where there is a tennis court, normally there would be lots of people leaving things there. The park seems real nice, I hear lots of birds and see tons of squirrels. I looked further up on the left side and it looks like there’s a ton more rocks and meshing. Maybe since my closer right doesn’t have much bank, there’s not much to work with.

Observations of Butter Milk Creek

Warm, cloudless, new construction, green, lush, larva in pool, no people, trees have been freshly planted, abundant poison ivy growth, ferns, no noticeable trash, buds in bloom, big sand pit, I see a bird in its nest, grass is being planted.

-Devon

oil spill

‘Where is the Outrage?’ video on how many people die from water