WaterWired

Still Going Strong After 50 Years Despite That Cape Cod Contaminated Groundwater

Spent this past weekend with some old friends on Cape Cod in Falmouth celebrating the 50th anniversary of a caddy camp we helped establish in 1963. We served as the first cohort of caddy campers.

Scary sight, right? Extras from 'The Sopranos'? But considering what we might have been drinking 50 years ago, not too bad.

I recalled the fact that while we were working summers there, the groundwater we drank was likely contaminated with sewage effluent from the Massachusetts Military Reservation, a 22,000 acre site used by both the USAF and US Army. Although it has existed as a site for military operations since 1911, it became the MMR in 1935.

The area is perhaps infamous for the amount of groundwater pollution that has occured because of the MMR's operations through the years. All kinds of stuff has found its way into the western Cape's potable groundwater: lead, thallium, perchlorate, TCE, benzene, toluene, PCE, carbon tetrachloride, vinyl chloride, etc. Groundwater supplies much of the potable water on the Cape. And, as luck would have it, the MMR overlies a sole source aquifer. 

Here is a portion of a 2012 plume map showing where our camp was located: just east of Coonamessett Pond near the little arm of the pond, which we (mistakenly?) called Round Pond. The stippled areas show contaminant plumes and the triangles are water-supply wells. 

You can download the entire map here:

Download Mmr_plume_map_2012

Read more about EPA and other (USAF and US Army) efforts to quantify and remediate contamination; there are now a number of remediation operations ongoing at the site. The USAF is managing the southern part of the contaminated area, where I worked summers through 1967. The clean-up is being performed under the auspices of Superfund. The contamination was not realized until the early 1980s. 

It is likely that the sewage effluent plume was beneath us in the 1960s. Here is a 2000 plume map.

I did not realize that all this had been going on until the late 1990s or early 2000s. I had heard of the MMR clean-up but since contaminant hydrogeology was not my forte I did not pay much attention. Then I was appointed to my second NRC NAWQA committee and we visited the site on a field trip. There I became aware of the amount of contamination and its spatial orientation.

One of the USGS hydrologists told me it was likely that the sewage effluent plume had reached the wells from which we drank in the 1960s (see map from 2000). I recall seeing a map from a journal publication showing a plume beneath the pond.

The MMR has produced a lot of useful information about how to recognize and deal with contaminated groundwater. It's one of those sites - like the Rocky Mountain Arsenal and the Borden site in Ontario, among others - where many scientists and engineers 'cut their teeth' vis-a-vis site characterization, remediation, plume movement, and the fate and transport of pollutants. 

Despite all the above, we seemed to have turned out all right. But what about our compatriots - there were about 30 more guys there. Wonder how they are faring?

Wait till next time.

"Nature is a part of our humanity, and without some awareness and experience of that divine mystery man ceases to be man." - Henry Beston

Infographic: Will Your City Run Dry? Report: 'America's Water Risk: Water Stress & Climate Variability'

I just received a PR email from Veolia Water's publicity folks touting the release of a new report (although it is dated February 2013 - guess I am on the 'D-List' with Kathy Griffin) from the Columbia Water Center and Veolia, America's Water Risk: Water Stress and Climate Variability'.

Download GB_CWC_whitepaper_climate-water-stress_final

I think some of the material from this report was presented here.

Read a news release from Growing Blue.

Here is an infographic:

From the infographic page at Growing Blue:

According to Upmanu Lall, the director of Columbia’s Water Center, many of the tools which are currently developed to help businesses assess water risk “actually understate the risk of climate variations.” Lall noted that in addition to water scarcity projections, certain areas should also consider their exposure to drought, since droughts will magnify any problems created by water scarcity.

In developing this study, Columbia researchers first developed a new water research metric that they call the Normalized Deficit Cumulated (NDC) index. The index pulls from more than 60 years of precipitation data and the current water use pattern for the United States in order to better depict the discrepancy between water use and availability.

The study clearly shows that decision-makers need to be thinking beyond the problems of water scarcity, to the way drought will affect regions that are already facing problems. Said Lall, “Droughts will create an additional impact that needs to be understood, because drought magnifies the effects of scarcity.”

Explanation of the Normalized Deficit Index (NDC)
Two risk metrics were developed to capture the influence of within year dry periods (Normalized Deficit Index – NDI) and of drought across years (Normalized Deficit Cumulated – NDC). The NDI is computed as one number for each year using historical daily rainfall data for the area and current daily water needs. It measures the maximum cumulated water shortage each year during the dry period that needs to be provided for from ground water or from surface water storage or transfers from other areas.

The NDC is computed as one number over the historical climate record. It represents the largest cumulative deficit between renewable supply and water use over the entire period. Consequently, it reflects the stress associated with multi-year and within-year drought impacts at a location. Given that 60 years of historical climate data were used, the maximum of the NDI (i.e. the worst single year), and the NDC (i.e., the effect of a string of bad years) may have an average recurrence interval of approximately 60 years. The NDI data provides insights into other recurrence intervals as well.

I'm curious - from the above discussion it would appear that stationarity is tacitly assumed since the historical record is used.

This should be a good one - CWC and Upmanu Lall are top-shelf.
 

Enjoy!
 

“The needed focus for the study of climate change and variability is on the regional and local scales. “ - James Hansen(?)  - source: Roger Pielke, Sr.

The Mother of All California Water Plans Explained Here

The UC Davis Water Sciences Twitter sent around this Tom Meyer cartoon that explained Gov. Jerry Brown's plan for the Sacramento Delta tunnels.  

Makes sense to me!

“Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said 'We are all just prisoners here, of our own device'
And in the master's chambers,
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can't kill the beast

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
'Relax,' said the night man,
'We are programmed to receive.
You can check out any time you like,
But you can never leave ...'
    -- Hotel California by The Eagles (written by Don Felder, Don Henley, and Glenn Frey)

Video: Kel Wer - Bringing Song and Safe Water to Lela, Kenya

This video tells the following story:

In July of 2012, a group of Oregon State University students traveled to the small village of Lela, Kenya with the goal of helping the community gain access to safe water. Kel Wer ("to bring song" in the native Dholuo language) is a film that tells the story of their journey, the challenges they faced, and the incredibly welcoming and resilient people they met along the way.

Read more about the project, implemented by the Oregon State University Chapter of Engineers Without Borders.

 

"The water of the river flows on without waiting for the thirsty man." - Kenyan proverb

Report: 'Hard Choices - Adapting Policy and Management to Water Scarcity'

Happy May Day!

This is the report from the New Mexico Water Resources Reserach Institute's 57th Annual New Mexico Water Conference, Hard Choices: Adapting Policy and Management to Water Scarcity.

Download Policy_Options_NMWRRI_NMWater_Conference57_August2012

Although the report deals with New Mexico, those in other states will find it helpful. The report offers 40 recommendations, some of which (from April Reese's 30 April E&E article) are: utilities must work together to develop more sustainable water systems; green infrastructure like porous pavement to reduce flood risk and enhanced aquifer recharge should be expanded; leaking pipes and other delivery infrastructure must be repaired; and management of dams and reservoirs must be improved to "maximize both agricultural and environmental needs."

Caution is urged on water transfers. Some rural residents are skeptical of transfers - after all, water flows to money and power.

It might even be necessary to review interstate compacts in light of advanced knowledge about water budgets and hydroclimatology. 

Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM), one of the co-sponsors, wrote this cover letter:

This conference report is a discussion of a variety of policy options proposed by participants and attendees of the New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute’s 57th Annual Water Conference titled Hard Choices: Adapting Policy and Management to Water Scarcity. The conference in August 2012 featured five panel discussions and solicited input from all attendees to submit policy ideas for discussion. Following the conference, I directed my staff to work with a diverse group of water policy experts to put this document together to record the policy options for consideration by the public and policy makers.

As we adapt to our ongoing drought and a future where drought may become more frequent in New Mexico and the Southwest, I will look to this conference report as a resource, and I encourage further engagement and feedback from New Mexicans. I would like to thank the New Mexico Water Resources Research Institute Interim Director Sam Fernald and his staff for their tremendous assistance, along with other experts representing agricultural, municipal, environmental, state, federal and tribal stakeholders.

I feel strongly that working collaboratively is the key to overcoming our collective water challenges. I will strive to carry on the Western tradition of leadership on water issues to best serve New Mexico and the United States.

Here is the conference report prologue:

The information and proposed actions in this document represent a comprehensive discussion of current and near-future water issues as articulated by regional experts and the public during the 2012 WRRI NM Water Conference. Although the issues range widely over supply, demand, conservation, technology and policy, a relatively simple reality emerges. It is likely to be drier in New Mexico in the decades to come than it has been in recent decades past, as the chart below suggests. By almost any measure, under current trends and trajectories, future water supply will not meet future water demand in New Mexico. Although supply can clearly be augmented in the future by conservation, improved policy and management, and new technologies, the evidence that emerges from the best New Mexico water science is that significant reduction in demand will be essential to meeting the constraints placed by smaller future supplies. Decades of relative water abundance in New Mexico and the region, coupled with large growth in local and regional populations and increased consumption, are leading us to a crisis point for water availability for residential, industrial, agricultural and environmental uses. 

Enjoy! Thanks to Jan Schoonmaker for sending this my way. 

'In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create but also by what we refuse to destroy. - John Sawhill