WaterWired

Nevada's Water Grab: KSL-TV Editorial; SNWA Seeks Delay

This editorial was broadcast on KSL-TV, Salt Lake City, on 30 March 2009, 5:30 AM (!)

Nevada's Water Grab

It is impossible to ignore the concerns expressed recently by a coalition of scientists about a proposed plan to pipe precious water from aquifers along the Utah-Nevada border to Las Vegas.

The warnings came in the form of a letter signed by 147 scientists and addressed to the Governors of Utah and Nevada. They concluded the controversial project would almost certainly "adversely impact rural livelihoods, substantially lower groundwater aquifers, reduce biodiversity, and will not be sustainable."

KSL appreciates their studied warning about the potential impact of the 300 mile pipeline. Ultimately, any decision regarding the project should indeed be based on sound science. In our view, though, common sense, as often expressed by farmers and ranchers in Utah's desolate west desert is equally persuasive. "You don't empty the water jar until the rain falls, and in the Snake Valley area, the rain doesn't fall very often."

In KSL's view, not a drop of water stored naturally beneath Utah, or Nevada for that matter, should be pumped to the surface and diverted to Las Vegas unless it can be absolutely proven the pipeline project won't adversely affect the fragile west desert ecosystem. Making that case, it would seem, will be extremely difficult.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority has asked the Nevada State Engineer for a one-year delay in the Snake Valley groundwater pumping hearings. The SNWA wants more time to complete a groundwater model.

 "Trouble is only opportunity in work clothes." -- Henry J. Kaiser

Say It Ain't So, Bill! USGS Will Use 'Groundwater' as One Word

The following memo is from William M. Alley, Chief, USGS Office of Groundwater (ouch!).

No, this is not a premature April Fools' Day stunt. Would I do such a thing?

In Reply Refer To: March 26, 2009
Mail Stop 411

OFFICE OF GROUNDWATER TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM 2009.03

Subject: GROUNDWATER: Ground water versus groundwater

It has been a longstanding practice within the USGS to spell ground water as two words and to hyphenate when ground water is used as a modifier (e.g., ground-water hydrology). Ground Water Branch Technical Memorandum 75.03 issued just under 35 years ago specified that the two-word form should be used.

Language evolves, and it is clear that the one-word spelling of groundwater has become the preferred usage both nationally and internationally. The one-word spelling has been used by the Merriam-Webster online dictionary since 1998. Most water-resources publications also use the one-word spelling, as do many technical groups, such as the National Research Council. With the emphasis on interdisciplinary science, many USGS scientists who are not specialists in the field commonly use the one-word form, as increasingly do many hydrologists within the Water Resources Discipline.

The term surface water has not seen the same language simplification that has occurred with the term 'groundwater.' 'Surface water' continues in the English language universally spelled as two words. Use of the two terms together spelled as 'groundwater and surface water' has become common usage.

With this memorandum, we are making a transition to the use of groundwater as one word in USGS. Changeover to use of the one-word spelling in our publications and web sites will be accomplished as seamlessly as possible. Reports in preparation should be converted to the one-word spelling where this does not require a special effort. Reports submitted for approval after August 1, 2009, will be expected to use the one-word form. During this transition period, the one-word or two-word spelling should be used consistently throughout a publication.

William M. Alley
Chief, Office of Groundwater (should I write Office of GW, or is it just Office of G?)

This memorandum supersedes Ground Water Branch Technical Memorandum No. 75.03

Thanks to Mary P. Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Ground Water, which is published by the National Ground Water Association, for sending me this item. The NGWA and the American Water Resources Association (AWRA) are the only two major USA professional societies who still use the two-word spelling. Some other Federal agencies, such as the EPA, also use the two-word spelling. The betting is that they will change to the one-word spelling.

Many of you are no doubt wondering: so what? For many groundwater practitioners, this has been a big deal for many years and has led to editorials, caustic memos, shouting matches, and even fisticuffs (or so I've heard). To understand the gravitas of this issue you may want to read my earlier post, The Great Hydrogeologic Question of Our Era: One Word, or Two, or Who Cares?

See this article from Vicki Kretsinger Grabert from the journal Ground Water (yes, two words):

Download Word Style Groundwater_article in GW Journal_03_31_09

I started out as a one-worder, following the lead of my PhD advisor, the late Gene Simpson, a former English major. He insisted it was one word, unlike surface water, soil water, etc., simply because English is illogical with few (no?) rules. He pointed to the early works in groundwater by German speakers, who, in keeping with their language's rules, combined 'Grund' + 'Wasser' to produce 'Grundwasser'.

Somewhere along the way I started flip-flopping and I finally became a two-worder, although I do not feel strongly either way and am glad the USGS did what it did.

The times, they are a-changing, and so am I: one word from now on. I started out using groundwater as one word, so it is appropriate that I finish my career that way.  

One question: now that we are using groundwater as one word, should we use the abbreviation "GW" for "groundwater", or should it be "G", as one wag indicated to me?

"By such innovations are languages enriched, when the words are adopted by the multitude, and naturalized by custom." -- Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, author of Don Quixote (thanks to Terry Meyer)

Jim Thebaut Receives Water Charity Humanitarian Award

Filmmaker and water activist Jim Thebaut will be awarded the Water Charity Humanitarian Award for his films that have addressed serious water issues facing the world and his related hydrohumanitarian work. The award will be made at a banquet on 3 April 2009 during the Lake Arrowhead Film Festival (LAFF). The presentation will be made by Averill Strasser, COO of Water Charity.

Jim is president of The Chronicles Group, a nonprofit based in Southern California. As far as water is concerned, Jim and his organization are best-known for the films Running Dry and The American Southwest: Are We Running Dry? 

Jim is currently at work on a film about the relationship between the global water crisis and international security. But he is more than a filmmaker. He has launched a new agenda for the Running Dry Project, to raise awareness and encourage a national discussion on the dire water conditions in South Africa, the United States, and beyond, and hopes to raise $5 million for the cause (download the pdf below for more information).

Download Chronicles Group Running Dry Agenda 2009

Jim is a good friend, but more importantly, he is one of the world's good guys, working to make the world a better place in which to live.

Congratulations, Jim, on a well-deserved accolade!

"The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn. " -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Gayle's Nifty Transboundary Water Word Cloud

Gayle Leonard over at Thirsty in Suburbia made a nifty word cloud out of the nine transboundary water posts on Daniel Collins' 22 March edition of his Cr!key Creek blog.

The cloud depicts the 100 most-used words in the nine posts, with size proportional to frequency. The word 'water' appeared 152 times.

You can download a zoomable pdf.

"There are two kinds of light: the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures." -- James Thurber

Domestic Well Water Quality: USGS Publications and Website

The USGS has just released Circular 1332,Quality of Water from Domestic Wells in Principal Aquifers Across the United States, 1991-2004: Overview of Major Findings.

You can also access the more detailed Scientific Investigations Report, Quality of Water from Domestic Wells in Principal Aquifers Across the United States, 1991-2004.

Both describe a water quality study of domestic wells in principal aquifers of the USA.

Here is the blurb from the USGS:

This study from the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assesses water-quality conditions for about 2,100 private domestic wells across the United States . As many as 219 properties and contaminants, including pH, major ions, nutrients, trace elements, radon, pesticides, and volatile organic compounds, were measured. Fecal indicator bacteria and additional radionuclides were analyzed for a smaller number of wells. The large number of contaminants assessed and the broad geographic coverage of the study provides a foundation for an improved understanding of the quality of water from the major aquifers tapped by domestic supply wells in the United States.

The results of this study are described in two USGS publications, including an overview of the study findings (Circular 1332) and a detailed technical report on data sources, analyses, and results (Scientific Investigations Report 2008-5227). Both publications can be downloaded in PDF format from the NAWQA website (see below). Also available in PDF format are two related articles in the Water Well Journal of the National Ground Water Association (NGWA) which briefly summarize USGS study findings and general information on domestic well maintenance, siting, and testing.

Here is the WWW site, where, aside form the aforementioned publications, you can access:

Water Well Journal Articles
Press releases
Podcast
Downloadable graphs, maps, and tables
FAQs
Downloadable data
Related links for domestic well information

Press releases from the USGS and NGWA are attached.

Download USGS.press.release

Download NGWA.press.release

[Disclosure notice: I am a member of NGWA and was just appointed to a National Research Council committee to make recommendations to the NAWQA Program as it enters its third decade.]

"In mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them. " -- Johann von Neumann