Groundwater Extraction: Sustainable Solutions, Stakeholders, And Data Interpretation

Part 1 of RP2
1. Think a sustainable issue (that the planet faces. Give an introduction of the issue. Put
your idea about systematic design in the context of sustainability. Discuss the different sustainable design criteria. (I already select the issue "Groundwater Extraction")
2. Discuss a sustainable solution of the issue. Identify stakeholders, their interests and values in the proposed solution.
3. You have to discuss the data interpretation/results and put your concluding remarks.

Part 2 of RP2
4. In Part 2 of RP2, you have to address the socio-ecological aspect of the sustainable issue that you considered in Part 1 of RP2.
5. What is your idea of self-awareness of socio-ecological thinking process and values?
6. Discuss the uncertainty aspect of the considered sustainable solution approach that you devised in Part 1 of RP2.

Topic And Question Discussion

CPEO (2009) state clearly that, water is not only a basic need to human life, but it is also one of the most requirement in animals lives. Plants on the other hand, requires water for its growth. Water is so important to an extend that it is used in industries, in cooling the machines, mixing of chemicals and for sanitary purposes. There are various sources of water some of which are, rain water, springs, rivers and more importantly ground water which  is extracted for use. Ground water extraction is employed in places for both commercial and domestic use.                                               

Topic And Question Discussion

1. System Design of Ground water extraction

There are several design employed in ground water extraction, one of which being water Wells which is a deep hole, shaft or an extraction. The water in some instance may flow out naturally but in other cases it is pumped out. GAC (2014) states that, the purpose of the Well determines its location. For domestic use, quality and long term water supply is the determining factor. A well installed to serve a large population, the pumping rate ranges from 500  to 4000 gallons per minute, for small and medium size communities the system of water may depend on the Well that produces from 100 to 500 gallons per minute. Family well can meet their demand with as low as 1 to 5 gallons per minute. Drillers and underground water consultant relay on the past history of the local ground water system and the experience of the neighborhood to determine the required amount of ground water is available at the place.

2. Sustainable Design Criteria.

Nace (1971) says that a well  has a screen where the water enter through perforation from the Well, the Well casing which is surrounded by gravel pack and bore hole seal. The screen keeps sand gravel from the gravel pack. The blankwell casing between and above the well prevent fine formation particles from entering the well. This gives a way from the aquifer to the surface. On the other hand it gives the pumpna good housing. The blankwell also separate the high quality pumped ground water from the shallow lower quality water. The annular space between the well screen is filled with gravels to prevent sand and fine sand. particles moves from the aquifer formation into the well. The upper part of the annular is sealed with a bentonic clay and cement to prevent water and contamination entering the annulars from the surface. A cording to California Well Standards (2009), the depth of grout for a community and industrial water supply is 50 feet's and 20 feet's for other wells, surface casing is installed to enable the installation of the well seal. These two seals protect the well from contamination of gravels pack, they also keep shallow material from curving into the well.

Problems Facing Groundwater Extraction

National Research Counil, (1986) discovered that, the ground water extraction has been faced with several problems since time in immemorial, some of which are:-

1.1. Ground water supply depletion

Ground water has been a renewable natural resource for a time frame of a bout 10000 years but in a period of 100 to 1000 years human lifestyle and civilization has turned it into anon renewable natural resource. This is to mean that there is a high rate of water mining than it is being replaced. These has made very many wells to dry up especially those located in arid and semi arid region.

2.2. Quality Of the Natural Groundwater

Initially, natural groundwater was crystal clear and pure for consumption, this is because it was filtered naturally by rocks and sediments, currently there are commercial distributors of bottled water which are dissolved with chemicals like methatne in the name of purification and preservation with are dangerous to human consumption.

3. Human Contamination

The use of fertilizers in farms, a cidic mining, and septic tanks are just some of human caused ground contaminant.

4. Over Rising Water tables

In a situation where the water table rise a above the house basement level, it seeps into the foundation and the basement floor is flooded, this can cause a catastrophey.

The issue of ground water depletion can be solved by drilling the well relatively deeper, a law to be enacted to restrict the commercial water distributors cartels from adding additive and preservatives in bottled water. Human contamination seems to be the most wanting problem, but the beset way to control is by preventing contaminants from entering the ground water by placing contaminants in a sealed container to isolate it from the aquifer. More so, storage areas must be lined with plastic or thick layer of clay to bond the contaminants.

Sponsored

The above data has been extraction from the agricultural and urban groundwater extraction form. California Well Standards ( Bulletin 74 – 90) California Department of Water Reserve  (online) https://www.water.gov. Table one show the areas where the groundwater has been extracted and there use in acre feets. There is also total pumping in acre feets for each subarea. The pie chat in figure two shows the percentage and the portion held by each subarea. Table two shows the total groundwater extracted distributed to urban areas. It show the estate and the city where the water is distributed, the pumping in acre feets and the percentage. The pie chat in figure three shows the portion of water each city get. These is as per Monterey County Water Resources Agencies (2015).

The Government as a stakeholder, provide a Gol delegation to the state groundwater responsibility as stipulated in the constitution, it has tried to delocolize the groundwater extraction to other partners so as to make water accesible to the public, municipal councils on the other hand, have a responsibility in the actual water supply to the public, this has made it very possible to most part of the world to access clean water. More so, there are local Non- Governmental stakeholders like private companies and Universities that have direct interest in the groundwater extraction, they provide wells to places where water is needed. The public is informed about the depletion of groundwater, sea water intrusion and merits of groundwater recharge by the CSOs through the media. The Metropolitan water supply and sewage Board as stakeholder has an interest in treatment of city water before it is discharged into the river, the treatment had to be 100% but from research only 50% treatment is done.

Possible Solutions

Groundwater is the most pure, natural and healthy for human consumption, I here by request all the stakeholders who are either positively or negatively affecting the existence of groundwater to either change their activities if they affect it negatively or strengthen their efforts if indeed they contribute positively towards the groundwater extraction.

The interaction of the social and ecological process leads to degradation of the environment. On the other hand, the groundwater extraction has several impacts on the social life and the ecological system. Some of negative impact are due to hydrodynamic behavior of the aquifer. Some of the negative impact are:-

1. Groundwater level drawdown, this in turn increase the water cost and may require early replacement of the well facilities.
2. Decrease in discharge in spring flow, river base flow and the wetland surface area.
3. Longer sections where some rivers may loose water to the ground.
4. Land subsidence especially in karstic areas and in some situation when the well is poorly constructed.

I have the following ideas on the awareness of social ecological thinking process and values of which if implemented it may led to permanent and healthy groundwater extraction.

1. The groundwater outflow and baseflow along the river to be sustained permanently to enable availability of water throughout the year.
2. Scarcely variables discharge area like wetland to be sustained.
3. Shallow water tables should be kept accessible to perennial plants a long valley forest.

Groundwater supply depletion may not have a solution, because as the days goes there is an a rapid population growth and industries which increase the water usage. On the other hand, there are still mushrooming cartels involves in extraction and distribution of bottled water which are mixed with chemical . Innovation of fertilizer is still on, fertilizers which are taken to be suitable for the plants are very dangerous when they zip into the ground and mix with groundwater, now that farming is the backbone of the  state economy, this pollution may ramain for life.

Conclusion:

Having gone through the water extraction and usage, it is clear that if aquick action is not taken most of the well will dry up because of over mining of water and people will end up taking chemical in form of bottled water.

Reference:

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