Water Supplies

[dinks]

Check out today's Maryland Independent. If we start having water shortages, not only will that affect our quality of life but it will also cause property values to tank!!!!

 

[Lenny]

Check out today's Maryland Independent. If we start having water shortages, not only will that affect our quality of life but it will also cause property values to tank!!!!

My Independent was very late this AM. I'll have to wait until this evening to read it. Are they predicting doom-and-gloom again?

 

[kwillia]

My Independent was very late this AM. I'll have to wait until this evening to read it. Are they predicting doom-and-gloom again?

I've read several articles on the subject, basically at the rate the tri-county area is building and tapping into the aquaducts... we (tri-county) area may very well be dry by 2030.

 

[Vince]

I've read several articles on the subject, basically at the rate the tri-county area is building and tapping into the aquaducts... we (tri-county) area may very well be dry by 2030.

Who cares, I'll be dead by 2030.

 

[vraiblonde]

I've read several articles on the subject, basically at the rate the tri-county area is building and tapping into the aquaducts... we (tri-county) area may very well be dry by 2030.

I have to ask - how does an area go dry when it's surrounded by water?

I'm being serious - I don't know how this stuff works.

 

[Vince]

I have to ask - how does an area go dry when it's surrounded by water?

I'm being serious - I don't know how this stuff works.

Only water that builds up the water table comes from rain, from what I've read. It took all of last year to get the water table back up from the drought a couple years ago.

 

[Ken King]

Let the aquaducts go dry, as long as it isn't the aquifers that dry up.

Even if the aquifers were to dry up it seems that shallow ground water wells could still provide a lot of water unless we get into a heavy drought period.

 

[Vince]

Let the aquaducts go dry, as long as it isn't the aquifers that dry up.

Even if the aquifers were to dry up it seems that shallow ground water wells could still provide a lot of water unless we get into a heavy drought period.

Got a deep well. Goes down about 400 ft. I don't worry much about running out of water.

 

[kwillia]

Let the aquaducts go dry, as long as it isn't the aquifers that dry up.

Even if the aquifers were to dry up it seems that shallow ground water wells could still provide a lot of water unless we get into a heavy drought period.

Sorry for using the wrong word, Ken... I am talking about the aquifiers.

Here is a link... http://www.waterresources.umd.edu/

A new University of Maryland study finds there is poor coordination between water supply planning and growth management planning in four states otherwise well known for their growth management efforts. Moreover, the research concludes that one reason for this poor level of coordination is that “local government priorities often lead to local land use decisions that are inconsistent with water source limitations, even when knowledge of water scarcity is available.”

 

[kwillia]

Got a deep well. Goes down about 400 ft. I don't worry much about running out of water.

You share the same water with the rest of us... including those in the bazillion housing projects that are being built left and right. A given farm that used to have one farm house tapping in, now has several hundred houses tapping in... multiply that by each farm you've seen sold for housing construction.

 

[kwillia]

Here is a really good link pertaining to SOMD... http://www.p-r-a.org/wptf/mgs_pamphlet.html

Population Growth and Water Demand

Southern Maryland is the fastest growing region in the state, and ground-water use is expected to increase in the future along with population growth. The Maryland Department of Planning (1999) estimates the population in Calvert County to increase from 51,372 in 1990 to 110,375 in 2015, and in Saint Mary's County to increase from 75,974 to 113,650 in the same time period. Based on county water plans, total ground-water pumpage is expected to increase from 5.7 million gallons per day (MOD) in Calvert County to 9.9 MOD in 2020, and in St. Mary's County from 8.2 MOD to 10.9 MOD. This future water demand must be met by either increasing withdrawals from aquifers currently in use, or tapping deeper aquifers that are unused or under-utilized.

It even has purty pictures...

 

[2ndAmendment]

Got a deep well. Goes down about 400 ft. I don't worry much about running out of water.

That is the same aquifer that most of the tri-county area uses, so worry. It is the Cumberland stream.

Vrai, all deep well water comes from fresh water aquifers. There are several at varying depths. Think of them as underground rivers that are very wide (almost bankless). We drill holes in the earth and run pipes down to get the fresh water. It is filtered through various mineral layers as it flows. One of the shallower aquifers come through a sulfur area over in the Hollywood area and tastes nasty. I rented a place that had a well that was tapped into that aquifer. Had to filter all my drinking water. It was OK to wash and shower with, but you could smell the sulfur.

The best aquifer in the area that is closest to the surface is the Cumberland stream. It is called so because it has been traced to originating below ground in the Cumberland area, at least that is what I was told when we had our well drilled at my old home on Breton Bay. We had to go down 365 feet to get to it. Our neighbor only went down to the first aquifer and even though he was next door, his water tasted nasty. When we first drilled our well, 1964, the water was almost an artesian well (coming out of the ground without pumping); it came to within about 4 feet of the surface. That is due to the water pressure in the aquifer. A few years before I sold the place, I had the pump and feed changed from a single line system to a self-priming two pipe system. That was in the 80's. At that time the water level level had dropped to about twenty feet of the surface. We ran the pipes down to 100 feet to be safe that we would have adequate draw. Hope that helps.

 

[dustin]

I think it was National Geographic that had an artice a few years ago which basically stated that unless we start changing how we use our potable water, given the crrent methods of creating/extracting it, drinking water is going to be more precious than crude oil in the near future (ie...long after we are all dead). Because everyone needs water. Not everyone needs gas in their oldsmobile.

I can totally see that happening...given that the population of the earth will have increased exponentially by that time. Areas like Africa and the middleeast are gonna be hard up...

 

[Lenny]

It even has purty pictures...

I especially like the 'cone of depression' picture. Kinda like the cone of silence concept?

 

[jazz lady]

St. Mary's Today had an article about this:

http://www.stmarystoday.com/water_ok_through_2030.htm

The study revealed that St. Mary’s County will have to depend more on wells in the Upper Patapsco aquifer. Water levels in the Aquia and Piney Point aquifers are depleting and if used at the current rate deeper wells will have to be dug to access the water -- deeper wells are less energy efficient.

According to the study the Aquia aquifer has declined from two feet below sea level in the 1970s to its current depth of 180 feet below sea level. The Upper Patapsco aquifer in the Lexington Park area has decreased from 10 feet below sea level in the 1980s to 40 feet below sea level currently.

We're using way more water than this area's aquafiers can sustain for long.

 

[2ndAmendment]

St. Mary's Today had an article about this:

http://www.stmarystoday.com/water_ok_through_2030.htm



We're using way more water than this area's aquafiers can sustain for long.

Try to get the developers or politicians to realize that and stop development. Not slow it down. STOP!!!!

Time to find a place upstream.

 

[jazz lady]

Try to get the developers or politicians to realize that and stop development. Not slow it down. STOP!!!!

Time to find a place upstream.

The coffers of local government run on development. More houses = more taxes = more budget. They are not going to halt or even slow development down based on a bunch of chicken littles saying the sky is falling (or in this case, the wells are running dry).

 

[2ndAmendment]

The coffers of local government run on development. More houses = more taxes = more budget. They are not going to halt or even slow development down based on a bunch of chicken littles saying the sky is falling (or in this case, the wells are running dry).

The sky may not be falling but the falling aquifer tables can be proven. There was a lot of concern over the aquifers when the Japanese wanted to build the eel processing plant in St.Mary's. I don't know if it was built. I think it was. They were going to use some enormous amount of water every day.