Latest Aquifer Stories

SAN ANTONIO, Feb. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Southwest Texas Water Resources, LP (STWR) today released a white paper summarizing more than two years of scientific research on the Southwest Texas Water Project (STWP). The proposed 70-mile regional pipeline would transport a maximum of 40,000 acre-feet of water annually from the Uvalde Pool of the Edwards Aquifer, diversifying San Antonio's water supply by pumping Edwards water from the Uvalde Pool rather than the San Antonio Pool. The research...

SAN ANTONIO, Jan. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Southwest Texas Water Resources, LP (STWR) today praised legislation, H.B. 814, authored by Rep. Roland Gutierrez (D-San Antonio), that would eliminate legal hurdles to a proposed pipeline project to transport 40,000 acre feet of water annually from the Uvalde Pool of the Edwards Aquifer to water consumers in Bexar County and surrounding communities. "This legislation represents a visionary step toward ensuring an adequate water supply for Bexar...

Study establishes methods to assess recycled aquifer waterThe Australian Government National Water Commission funded a study to establish an approach to assess the quality of water treated using managed aquifer recharge. Researchers at Australia's CSIRO Land and Water set out to determine if the en product would meet standard drinking water guidelines.At the Parafield Aquifer Storage, Transfer and Recovery research project in South Australia, the team of scientists harvested storm water from...

By Susan Young, Stanford UniversityWhen you dive into that salad full of lettuce grown in the American West, there's a good chance you are enjoying the product of irrigation from an underground water source. These hidden groundwater systems are precious resources that need careful management, but regulatory groups have a hard time monitoring them, owing to a lack of accurate data.Now, scientists at Stanford have found a way to cheaply and effectively monitor aquifer levels in agricultural...

Leaks from carbon dioxide injected deep underground to help fight climate change could bubble up into drinking water aquifers near the surface, driving up levels of contaminants in the water tenfold or more in some places, according to a study by Duke University scientists.Based on a year-long analysis of core samples from four drinking water aquifers, "We found the potential for contamination is real, but there are ways to avoid or reduce the risk," says Robert B. Jackson, Nicholas...

SAN ANTONIO, Aug. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Rodney T. Smith, Ph.D., President of the Board of Managers of Southwest Texas Water Resources, LP (STWR), spoke Friday in Corpus Christi before the Board of the Nueces River Authority regarding the impact of the proposed Uvalde Water Project on surface water supplies in the Nueces River Basin. Joining Smith for the presentation was Gene Dawson, Jr., P.E., President, Pape-Dawson Engineers. The STWR presentation to the Board addresses the concerns raised...

Every minute, 10,000 gallons of water mysteriously gush out of the desert floor at a place called Ash Meadows, an oasis that is home to 24 plant and animal species found nowhere else in the world.A new Brigham Young University study indicates that the water arriving at Ash Meadows is completing a 15,000-year journey, flowing slowly underground from what is now the Nevada Test Site.The U.S. government tested nuclear bombs there for four decades, and a crack in the Earth's crust known as the...

An estimated 60 million people in Bangladesh are exposed to unsafe levels of arsenic in their drinking water, dramatically raising their risk for cancer and other serious diseases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).Because most of the contaminated water is near the surface, many people in Bangladesh have installed deep wells to tap into groundwater that's relatively free of arsenic.In recent years, farmers have begun using the deep, uncontaminated aquifers for irrigation "“ a...

UT professor finds concentrations of viruses and bacteria linked to human feces in community water sources in East TennesseeDo you know what is in your drinking water? A study by a University of Tennessee, Knoxville, professor may have you thinking twice the next time you fill up that glass of tap water.Larry McKay, an earth and planetary sciences professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, sampled eight community water supply sources in East Tennessee and found concentrations of viruses...

COLLEGE STATION "“ A new study by Texas AgriLife Research scientists finds that contrary to widespread perceptions, springs in the Edwards Plateau, which provide much of the stream flows, have not been declining as a result of increased encroachment of woody plants. In fact, spring flows are twice as high as they were prior to 1950.The study found that the landscape is actually recovering from intensive livestock grazing in Texas that dates back to the late 1800s. Large numbers of cattle,...