Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
to the National Resources Inventory, which states, “Most of
the loss is due to dwindling groundwater supplies from the
Ogallala aquifer. Aquifer level declines have ranged from fifty
feet to one hundred feet since 1980, with saturated thickness
reductions of 50 percent.”
South-central Arizona has seen water table declines of 200 feet.
In the southern section of the Central Valley of California (Kern,
Kings, and Tulare counties), an overdraft of 800,000 acre-feet per
year has resulted in declines of more than 200 feet in some areas.
The Mississippi River Alluvial Aquifer in Arkansas has declined
100 feet in 90 years in the Grand Prairie region, and well yields
have declined accordingly.
THE ENERGY PRODUCTION SQUEEZE
As we mentioned earlier, water also is essential to the production
of energy, whether to cool drills as they search for oil and gas; to
create steam to turn turbines that power generators and produce
hydroelectric power; or to harness harmful carbon emissions in the
air and inject them underground (carbon sequestration).
Adding to the stress that energy production imposes on water
supplies, many options for alternative fuels are in geographic areas
with limited and already stressed water resources. People tout oil
shale, for example, as a great domestic option to meet future energy
needs. Not only is exploiting oil shale a costly process that uses huge
amounts of water to extract oil from rock, but the nation's big oil
shale reserves are in arid states like Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah
that are facing drought conditions and have no water to spare.
WATER FACTS
Water is required to produce fuel. Sandia National Labora-
tories, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, offers an estimate of
how much water it takes to produce one gallon of various
types of fuel:
