Groundwater Pumping In Florida

Developing and implementing strategies that can secure adequate water for both people and the environment is one of the most important missions of the water management districts in Florida. To fulfill their missions, the water management districts develop water supply plans to help provide adequate and sustainable water supplies to meet future needs while protecting the environment. One of the more important tools used in the planning process is a regional groundwater model.

“ A century ago Floridians thought their biggest problem was too much water where people wanted to settle. Now, our biggest problem is that we do not have enough water where people want to settle.” (Prologue pg. 10) Says Cynthia Barnett author of Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S. 100 plus years ago Florida was drowning. We had more water than we knew what to do with. In Mirage it teaches us many of the ways that we have come so far from being this teeming state. Through wasteful water use, legal and political fights for control, overconsumption, and undervalue for one of the most vital elements of life we have put ourselves in a position that is showing to be very difficult for Florida to overcome. Florida has

Water availability of both surface and ground water has become a major problem due to high demand. On average, 320 gallons of water are used per day by each household in America, 30 percent of which is used outdoors (EPA, 2015). In Florida alone, total water withdrawals are expected to increase by almost 21 percent by the year 2030 (Water use trends in Florida, 2014). I believe the high volume of water being used is not the sole issue; it is the source of our water as well as our water management practices. Some experts estimate that as much as 50 percent of water used for outdoor irrigation is lost through evaporation (EPA, 2015). This loss of water happens when plants or grasses are watered at certain times during the day and is a direct result of Florida’s water mismanagement. Commercial and residential vegetation has been watered too often and at the wrong times for far too long and it needs to stop unless we want to see our aquifers dry up entirely.

In detail, as air gets mixed in with the water and soil, the soil begins to decompose creating peat. (Sourced: Wiki). When groundwater gets removed it compacts the layers where water was in between causing it to deteriorate. The extensive ground-water pumping, but also and not limited to oil and gas extraction has caused an increase in the occurrence of flooding which badly damages developed or developing

Over-collapse type sinkholes are extremely dangerous as they occur abruptly without any deformation signs resulting in millions of dollars in damages every year. This type of sinkhole has become the most prominent type afflicting Florida as our demand for groundwater continues to rise. Zephyrhills, a Nestle water-bottle company, owns wells in Pasco County, FL. On average, the water bottle company produces approximately 1,300 water bottles per minute. (Penn) If every water bottle is an average size of 16.9 fl. oz. and the operation plant continues to run for a full 24 hours, Zephyrhills would drain around 32 million fl. oz. of water per day. This results in pumping 11 billion fluid ounces of water every single year. Coincidentally enough, Pasco County has the largest sinkhole occurrence rate in Florida. If Zephyrhills does not retain responsibility and minimize pumping, they will continue to draw more water than the recharge rate will allow, further depleting underlying aquifer systems resulting in more catastrophe. Since groundwater drawing will not cease to continue anytime soon, we must recognize that the recharge rate of the Floridian Aquifer system is one of balance. If more water is drawn then the current recharge rates allow, the system will recede and continue to create open cavities within the

Georgia, Florida, & Alabama have been battling for decades over the future distribution of the water from the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa & Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river basins, all of which cross the states' borders. The argument has thus far involved many local, state, & federal agencies, plus numerous courts & mediators. The outcome of this dispute is one of the region's most important environmental issues today. Georgia wants to be assured enough water to grow, especially in Atlanta, as well as having water to supply other cities & agricultural use. However, Atlanta, not being in a water-rich part of the state & sprawling on top of countless river systems draining into the Atlantic & the Gulf of Mexico, creates a problem. Alabama

The High Plains Aquifer’s main source of recharging comes from precipitation at a low rate below .30 inches in parts of Texas, but over 5 inches in some parts of the other eight states within the aquifer’s territory including Kansas and Nebraska (Dennehy, 2013). The issues with in managing the

Natural hazards, such as sinkholes, pose hazards to the environment, humans, and property throughout the state of Florida. In 2013 a sinkhole claimed the life of Jeffery Bush in Seffner, Florida. He was lying in bed when the ground collapsed beneath his bedroom (Brinkmann, 2013, p.1). Sinkholes can drain wetlands, reroute surface runoff into aquifers, and detrimentally impact natural ecosystems by significantly altering them. Sinkholes occur naturally in Florida, but anthropogenic activities can influence their formation. Indeed, this paper will argue that groundwater pumping and surface loading are the most critical anthropogenic factors that influence sinkhole development in Florida.

Collectively the United States is ranked as the greatest consumers of water worldwide; a startling fact for a country that cannot support its own unrivaled demands (Barlow, 2007). The United States is now crucially dependent on nonrenewable groundwater for a staggering 50% of its daily water usage (Barlow, 2007). In addition to such formidable numbers, citizens of the United States use and waste up 80-100 gallons or 454 liters of water per day (Perlman, 2009). The United States simply doesn’t possess enough fresh water or renewable sources of water to keep up with its gross demands. Nearly 40% of U.S waters are deemed unsafe for recreational activities such as fishing and even swimming

A reason why you won’t need to worry about if the state regulates groundwater is farmers losing their jobs. If farmers lose their jobs how are they supposed to make a living? In source 1 it says “I almost feel like farming will eventually become obsolete here.” said Beatriz Sanders. I think it will also make farming more difficult for farmers. In source 1 it also says “ to put a cap on that bloodline of water, i think that it is dangerous, said Sanders. Everything about farming is already unpredictable, harvest to harvest.”

In California, groundwater is not merely another integral part of the hydrologic cycle, but a key component that drives the state’s economy, contributes towards environmental stewardship, and supports communities that may range from being partially dependent to solely dependent on groundwater. Groundwater in California has always played a key role in supporting the urban sector, meeting the irrigation needs of the arid Central Valley, or functioning as a supplemental water source during times of drought. Given the importance that groundwater has in the state, it is no surprise that California pumps more groundwater than any other state in the nation, pumping roughly 16% of the annual groundwater supply (Groundwater update). Despite how important groundwater maybe, there has not been an established system to manage it throughout the state. The degree of groundwater management will vary where some regions will have some guidelines where others will have none at all. Although, the lack of groundwater management may soon change after the passage of the Sustainable Groundwater Act that was signed in 2014 by the California Governor Jerry Brown. The legislation holds a promising future for groundwater management in that it is geared towards establishing efficient groundwater management practices that strive to achieve groundwater sustainability by the year 2040. The introduction of this legislation is the first of its kind in California and represents a pioneering era in how we will manage our groundwater in the years to come.

Water Follies: Groundwater pumping and the fate of America’s fresh waters was about how Groundwater pumping has destroyed the water surfaces in the United States. Robert Glennon, the author of the book, wrote this book in a way that the reader would admire his exhaustive obsession for detailed research, in order to provide the most information to the reader. Even though the author wrote this book for history lovers and water and hydrology enthusiasts, most readers can get through the book without having the thought that this book is not for them.

Anthropogenic factors such as groundwater pumping, combined with certain environmental conditions associated with a lowered base water level (e.g. drought and hurricanes), can result in sinkhole development. For example, the excessive pumping of groundwater can create subsurface voids because of the lowering of the water table, which can lead to the development of sinkholes due to gravity and the

The challenge results from the fact that ground-water pumping can affect all interconnected surface- water bodies and the effects may be immeasurably small relative to surface water discharge and greatly attenuated in time. Although we may possess the ability to calculate the effects of ground-water pumping

Georgia, Florida, and Alabama have been disputing over water from two major river basins. “The two basins are the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa basin and the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint basin. These river systems are used for drinking water, power generation, agriculture, aquaculture, navigation, and recreation (1)”.This disputant has reached into local, state, and even federal level. This is one of the most important environmental issue in the southern region today. During times of drought were times seen as the water wars intensifying. There was a drought in 1981, 1986, and 1988 in the south. Hence, when Alabama and Florida are at high points of wanting the water to be relocated. Then in 2006 a drought return causing the war war to intensify