<< Back 9/4/02 Protecting the hidden reservoirs of water By John Manuel Here in Durham in the North Carolina piedmont, the summer drought has reached critical proportions. Hard-hit towns are rigging hoses and pipes to pump in water from neighboring areas. Several have resorted to trucking in water. Evidence of the drought is highly visible — depleted reservoirs and bone-dry streams — and most people are doing their best to conserve. But when the winter rains finally come and the reservoirs refill, we’ll go back to our old ways. Not so for those in the North Carolina Central Coastal Plain. Despite decent rainfall, this region is suffering a water shortage so severe the state has mandated up to 75 percent reductions in water use. The rule is permanent, not temporary, because these counties draw most of their water from deep aquifers — porous layers of sand and rock filled with water hundreds of feet below the earth’s surface. Unlike most surface waters or shallow wells, these aquifers’ water is clean and pure, requiring little or no treatment to use. Unfortunately, the folks down east have been using it to death. Since it began monitoring in the 1970s, the North Carolina Division of Water Resources has seen water levels decline in the Black Creek and Upper Cape Fear aquifers by more than 200 feet. These deep aquifers are millions of years old and their replenishment, if it occurs at all, will only take place over the long term. Trouble is, when water is pulled down below the top of the aquifer, seams can collapse or air can enter, causing permanent reductions in aquifer capacity. In other areas, saltwater can intrude from the Atlantic Ocean. Alarmed by this situation, the state has declared a Capacity Use Area covering 15 counties in the Central Coastal Plain. Starting Aug. 1, these counties were required to develop plans to reduce water use from the two aquifers over the next 16 years. All groundwater users withdrawing more than 100,000 gallons per day must obtain water-use permits to continue pumping. Never before have permits been required. No denials have yet been issued, but officials anticipate they will be. When this rule was first proposed, many local governments and businesses resisted the idea of government regulation of water use. The Division of Water Resources explained that the aquifers were being overused and that without adequate water, economic growth in the region would cease. Clobbered by four major hurricanes in the last decade and the continued loss of manufacturing jobs, these counties are desperate to attract new industry. Having a dependable supply of water is essential in the recruiting game. “Simply put, no water equals no economic future,” says Jean Crews-Klein, a vice president of the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center, Inc. Local governments are responding by instituting a combination of alternative supply and conservation measures. Several municipalities are planning to draw water from local rivers, though that will necessitate treatment and jack up the cost. Greenville is experimenting with aquifer storage and recovery, taking water from rivers during periods of normal flow, treating it, and pumping it into the aquifer for use during times of need. That practice is being promoted in Florida, but is opposed by Georgia for fear of contaminating the aquifers. Wilson County is building a water reuse system that will enable it to sell treated wastewater for golf course irrigation and industrial uses. North Carolina is not the only state dependent upon aquifers, nor the only one to impose regulations to stem their decline. Maryland requires statewide permits for all groundwater withdrawals. If any aquifer drops below 80 percent of its “management level,” further withdrawals are banned. Virginia requires permits in designated groundwater management areas, which include most of its coastal plain. Georgia has regulations on a 24-county coastal area that utilizes the Floridan aquifer. In four counties near Savannah, you cannot get a permit to withdraw water from that aquifer. Florida has required permits for users of more than 50,000 gallons per day for more than a decade. No applicants have been denied outright, but many users have had their allocation reduced. Can these measures reverse the decline of the aquifers? Indications are that they can. Maryland’s aquifers recovered after pumping was restricted, and New Jersey, a state that once imposed a moratorium on new withdrawals, has seen its aquifers rebound and is now allowing new users. Here in the Southeast, we’re used to taking water for granted. That is going to have to change. Water is disappearing not only before our eyes, but from beneath our feet. It’s not just an environmental issue, it’s an economic one as well. Without water, there will be no business at all. Manuel is a freelance writer who has covered environmental issues since 1990. He has published in Audubon, Backpacker, and Canoe & Kayak magazines and has a forthcoming guidebook on the North Carolina coast (John F. Blair, Publisher).