Do We Really Have A Water Problem? Do we really have a water problem like every one has been talking about? Yes and no would be the answer in my opinion. We have three aquifers here seperated by different types of soil and also earthquake faults. They form bowls, large holding tanks of water. The upper aquifer is our main water supply right now and is also the smallest aquifer. Below the upper aquifer we have two more aquifers that in some place go to a depth of 4,000 at that level they are finding some salt water. In some of the other locations in Lancaster where wells were drilled to 1,200 and 1,800 feet deep they found some arsenic in those wells. Most of the lower aquifer runs around 2,500 feet deep. Most of our valley wells are pumping at only 300 foot deep removing water from the upper aquifer only. This removal from the upper aquifer has caused it to be in over draft. Which means that the bowl that use to be full is now close to the bottom. Most of these wells are pumping around 250 GPM while wells at the 600 foot level are pumping at 2,000 GPM. In Plamdale water district we only have two wells that are drilled down to the 600 foot level. It really depends on location how deep the aquifer is and how deep bowls that are holding water go down. One well in Palmdale in the area of Sierra Hwy and Barrel springs road was drilled to only 150 foot deep and pumping water but was shut down due to arsenic found in that well.Farming back in the 40’s and 50’s sucked the upper aquifer down and it has never been able to recharge itself to full again. This is a big part of the trouble we are now seeing with water levels in the upper aquifer. We also found out that after about ten years past by that the water that was used on crops, a certain percentage did make its way back to the aquifer. So some of this water did recharge itself. Now the big problem with having a aquifer in over draft is the fact that the aquifer starts to cave in on itself without the water holding up the land. So we do have places that have sunk in the valley as much as 6 feet. The longer the aquifer is in over draft the more sinking will take place. So we really need to start recharging the upper aquifer by every means we have. Run off water shouldn’t be just stored in hild ponds like it is now but piped to recharging locations in the Valley and we have a lot of these locations. We should also purchase water from the Gorman area where in some case they have to much water and pipe that water to recharge areas and start putting this water back. Better sewage treatment plants to treat the water so it can be used to water crops and filter its way back to the aquifer without nitrates in it and damaging the aquifers water supply. I also believe we should be pumping our water from the lower aquifer and not the upper. This cost more to pump from but does a couple of things. Better water supply in the lower aquifer, better filtered water from surface water recharge because of the simple fact there is a couple more layers of soil to travel through for filtering. The upper aquifer also recharges the lower aquifer. So we can’t just empty the upper aquifer and then start pumping everything from the lower aquifer or the upper aquifer would lose storage capacity and more sinking of the land under Palmdale and Lancaster would take place. 23 wells pump our water after being treated with chlorine and then right into the distribution system. Wells are tested to meet applicable regulations, but is that enough? How did Mercury show up in a Rosamond trailer parks water? Because these test do not test for everything that could be in the water and could be toxic. It’s a crap shoot on testing. Testing cost money for every test of each material tested for. So they only test for what they think might be in the water. Things they don’t test for could be in the water and know one would even know it. People that think they are safe drinking bottled water are in the same boat, same type of testing of the water that goes into bottled water. Do you know everything that’s in bottled water? They don’t either unless it is tested for it. In some cases tap water is probably safer than some of the bottle water you buy. Do you know where it came from, what tests were made on it? Bottled water is under the control of the FDA and public water is under the control of the EPA. The FDA test the bottled water under EPA rules. So buying bottled water doesn’t mean it’s any safer than tap water. Bottled water is also put into a bottle at a bottled water plant, the plant is checked every so often for being clean and making sure that no contamintion is being added by just running through the plant bottling the water. So a water bottling plant may be dirty for awhile before FDA does its check of the plant just like when they check the places you eat. One day they have A rating the next time they have a C rating things happen. You are just as well off to stop paying these high prices for bottled water and just filter the water again at your own house and place it in the bottle for that days use. Remember home filters are only as good as the filter is clean. If you don’t change your filter you may be worse off than not filtering at all. Contaminates build up inside the filter and your water ends up running through more and more contaminate. Instead of removing contaminates you just might be adding contaminates to the water you are drinking. Remember bottled water comes out of Aquifers, some say its bottled spring water but where is the spring water coming from? in most cases it comes up from the aquifer, same aquifer the water you drink is pumped out of. Bottled water is allow a certain amounts of contaminates, the amount the government seems to think is safe. Some of these contaminates are found to cause cancer in higher amounts but they believe its safe in lower amounts. So can you ever really have safe pure water? I do not think so; the water will always have something in it that is not the best to be in that water. Rainwater is probably the best choice of water, but in highly polluted areas where the air that you breathe is polluted rainwater picks these same contaminates up on its way down. The type of collection system for collecting rain water is also a factor in how safe rain water is, bacteria can enter the rain water by a unclean collection system. You also hear the ad’s say fresh mountain spring water. Again you have to remember that water travels to reach the surface and become spring water. But the fact is what the water is traveling through on its way up? What type of heavy metals, chemicals from old mining operations? Oil and gas production? Septic systems? agriculture applications, microbial contaminants, even radioactive materials in a natural state?
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 10:41:20 +0000
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