Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America’s Fresh Watersby Robert James Glennon
314 pages; Island Press, Washington; ISBN: 1-55963-223-2; (2002)
Reviewed by Lou Wagner,
Regional Conservation Scientist, Massachusetts Audubon Society
In the mid-1990s, I became involved in the appeal of a permit authorizing the development of a new well adjacent to one of the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s wildlife sanctuaries in the Town of Duxbury, Massachusetts. Mass Audubon had filed the appeal with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection to mitigate the threat posed to a 95-acre, shallow, groundwater-fed pond located mostly on its North Hill Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary. Environmental documents filed by the Town indicated that the pumping of the well could result in a substantial drop in water levels in the pond during summer. In its appeal, Mass Audubon sought limits on the use of the well that would be tied to water levels in the pond. The Town argued that it needed the water to keep pace with increasing water demands of Town residents. Water demands were particularly high in summer when many residents used large volumes of water on a daily basis to irrigate lawns on Duxbury’s sandy soils.
The Duxbury appeal was ultimately resolved when the Town agreed to maintain water levels in the pond above a specified minimum level. Should the water level in the pond reach or drop below this level, the Town was required to stop pumping water from the well until water levels again rose above the specified minimum. This case was my introduction to the curious world of groundwater pumping. I soon became involved with other groundwater pumping issues, including problems in the Ipswich River watershed, where municipal wells cause portions of the river to dry up almost every summer and similar, if not quite as severe, problems in many watersheds across Massachusetts.
Dealing with the environmental impacts of groundwater pumping brought me into communication in the late 1990’s with Robert Glennon, professor of law and public policy at the University of Arizona. At that time, Dr. Glennon was investigating the effects of groundwater pumping across the United States, and was interested in the situation in the Ipswich River and elsewhere in Massachusetts. In 2002, the results of his work appeared as Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America’s Fresh Waters.
When I first learned the title of this book, I thought it odd. After reading it, I find the title a perfect description of how groundwater is used across the United States. A few examples demonstrate why. Around Tampa, Florida, groundwater pumping caused water levels to decline to the point where lakes and ponds are drying up. The answer to the outraged complaints of shoreline dwellers was not to reduce pumping and allow the ponds to recover but to pump more groundwater into the dried up ponds creating something akin to a giant recirculating fountain.
In Minnesota, groundwater pumping threatens the Straight River, a productive trout stream. The pumped water is needed to ensure that local farmers can grow potatoes that meet McDonald’s exacting specifications for long, straight, and blemish-free French fries. Potatoes grown without irrigation are not deemed sufficiently uniform and attractive and don’t make the grade.
In Texas, the Riverwalk, a 2.5-mile section of the San Antonio River that flows through downtown San Antonio, is the state’s most popular tourist attraction. But the river is not what it seems. Groundwater pumping long ago dried up the San Antonio River. Today, up to 10 million gallons per day of groundwater from the Edwards Aquifer are pumped into the dry riverbed to create the appearance of a river.
These are just a few, brief examples of the strange story of groundwater pumping as explored in Water Follies. The book includes a dozen stories from across the United States about the circumstances and effects of groundwater pumping. Two case studies from New England are included, the Ipswich River in northeastern Massachusetts, and the rivers providing Atlantic salmon habitat in the blueberry-growing regions of Maine.
Glennon explores the disconnection between the science of hydrology and groundwater law. While hydrology recognizes the interrelated nature of ground and surface waters, for the most part, state water laws do not. Historically, surface and groundwaters have been treated as unconnected under the law and are regulated in different manners. As a direct result, rivers, streams, springs, lakes, and ponds across the nation are drying up as the groundwater that sustains them is pumped and diverted for human use. The effects can be dramatic when entire rivers disappear, or subtle when chemistry, flow rate, and temperature of rivers and streams are altered by reduced flow volumes. These effects may be local, as in the case of North Hill Marsh where pumping from a shallow gravel aquifer threatened to reduce water levels in a nearby pond, or distant, as in the pumping of deep western aquifers which may cause springs and rivers many miles away to dry up or suffer reduced flow rates. Whether the effects are dramatic or subtle, local or distant, groundwater pumping frequently results in significant alteration of aquatic and wetland ecosystems, often causing significant changes in species composition and habitat quality.
The need for the law to catch up and connect with the science becomes clear as Glennon presents sobering statistics about the rapid increase in groundwater use in the United States. Much of the pumping of groundwater in the western United States is essentially a form of mining the water; aquifers that have filled over thousands of years are being depleted at speeds that vastly exceed the rate at which they are recharged by precipitation. Most of this western water is used for agriculture, often for relatively low value crops, such as alfalfa. Such profligate use is encouraged by the fact that the water is free – one need only construct a well and pay the cost of the pumping. Even in the water-rich east, groundwater resources are being depleted, as exemplified by drained lakes and ponds in Florida and the chronic drying up of the Ipswich River in Massachusetts. As in the west, inefficient and wasteful use of water is encouraged by the fact that it is free for the taking. Water rates recover the cost of constructing and operating wells and water distribution and treatment systems, but the water itself is free.
Having surveyed how groundwater resources are used and abused across the United States, Glennon concludes with some suggestions to prevent further damage to rivers, streams, and wetlands from unsustainable rates of groundwater pumping. These necessary reforms include:
Glennon also urges action to directly address groundwater pumping that intercepts and depletes stream flow, including either the outright banning of such pumping or the levying of an extraction tax to discourage the location of wells near rivers, streams, and wetlands.
Water Follies provides a good introduction to the environmental effects of groundwater pumping throughout the United States. The book also provides as good a simple description of the interrelated nature of ground and surface waters as I have found. The selection of case studies from across the country effectively counters the common belief that the eastern United States is water rich and need not worry about water conservation or environmental damage from groundwater withdrawals. If you are interested in the protection and preservation of aquatic and wetland ecosystems, Water Follies offers an engaging insight into one of the greatest and least understood threats to these resources.
The views and opinions expressed in all articles that appear in "Conservation Perspectives" are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of NESCB.