In October 2008 Todd Jarvis and I co-chaired the First International Conference on Nonrenewable Ground Water Resources. It was a landmark event, attended by 55 of the most engaged people I'd ever encountered at a conference venue.
Here is a copy of the conference report.
For our keynote speaker we were fortunate to have Dr. T.N. Narasimhan, Professor Emeritus, Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California at Berkeley. Nari is a friend, scholar, gentleman, and one of the world's foremost hydrogeologists.
I mention all this because Nari recently sent me a link to an Op-Ed he wrote for The Hindu entitled Groundwater Mining: American Experience. Parts of Nari's native land are plagued by groundwater mining and he wrote this article in hopes that India might learn some lessons from the USA.
Here is a brief abstract of the piece:
Recent geophysical studies report large-scale groundwater mining in the Indus-Ganga Basin. India can gain useful insights by examining American experience in adapting to unacceptable groundwater overdraft.
Here is his paragraph on five USA cases:
For a glimpse into this overdraft, we may consider the following five basins: the Dakota Aquifer System (171,000 sq. km.), the Atlantic Coastal Plain System (44,000 sq. km.), California’s San Joaquin Valley (9,730 sq. km), the High Plains Aquifer System extending from South Dakota to Texas (443,000 sq. km), and South Central Arizona (8,070 sq. km). Groundwater production from these systems significantly exceeds the ability of ambient natural precipitation to replenish. During the 20th century, non-renewable water mined from these systems amounted to over 365 cubic km. Unintended consequences of groundwater mining included continuous decline in water levels, drying up of perennial streams that depend on groundwater for base flow, demise of deep-rooted phreatophytes, land subsidence and ground fissuring. Evidence is overwhelming that irrigated agriculture and industries that rely on groundwater from these systems cannot be sustained for long.
I recently posted about the San Joaquin Valley situation. The recent 60 Minutes piece on California's water problems had nary a mention of the serious groundwater overdrafting in the SJV.
He continues:
During the 19th century and early 20th century, water laws were formulated in the U.S. to maximise economic growth through incentives for exploitation. Appropriative water rights were granted to users. Groundwater was treated as private property. During the second half of the 20th century, the traditional mindset of exploitation and growth found itself confronted by uncertainty of resource availability and interconnectedness of surface water and groundwater. Adapting to the changing reality gave rise to a serious social challenge.
Those who own water rights and have commercial interests like to exercise their rights to groundwater as private property, citing economic benefits to society. Others who are concerned about long-term resource integrity for the present and future generations like to see integrated, sustainable management of surface water and groundwater. Society is in a state of transition, continuously adjusting to these two opposing forces.
Legally, private rights to groundwater continue. Whereas navigable surface water is subject to public trust, groundwater remains outside its scope. In practice, as groundwater productivity declines, water levels fall, and ecological impacts become obvious, regulatory statutes are invoked to identify critically affected areas and regulate groundwater production.
To most of us, there is nothing surprising in the aformentioned three paragraphs. Our Western water laws were designed to encourage development. But now we are seeing the downside to this emphasis on development and aren't quite sure what needs to be done, or if we know what needs be done, we aren't quite sure how to do it equitably.
Nari is optimistic, more so than I am (at least today); see his quote at the bottom. He does believe that society must be resilient to solve these problems:
In a democracy, such resilience is inherent in constructive, open debate among informed citizenry that enables sacrifices and compromises.
I couldn't agree more on the need for resilience. I just haven't seen enough of it.
Read the entire article. It's well worth your time.
"Although progress may be slow in arresting overdraft, there are encouraging signs that sustainable groundwater management will eventually materialise out of sheer necessity." -- T.N. Narasimhan, from the article
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