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Sitting here
in the northern Appalachians in a spring drizzle that has lasted for days, it
is difficult to achieve the right frame of mind for the focus of this May issue
— water shortages. Potable water is one of the more elusive natural resources
to assess, right up there with ocean fisheries, geothermal energy and undiscovered
oil. The difficulty is that it is mobile and often hidden, with its quality
and quantity affected by numerous natural and anthropomorphic processes. For
most of us, we are unaccustomed of thinking of it as a problem (unless it is
too many drizzly days in a row). Yet, the frequency and severity of worldwide
domestic water shortages continue to grow toward local problems of global proportions.
As the pieces in this issue illustrate, new science, technology, policies and
attitudes cannot come soon enough if we are to keep water problems from eroding
our social and economic dreams and plans.
In the western United States, earth science has a role to play, as Lisa Robert
discusses in “Hijacking the Rio Grande: The Impacts of Aquifer Mining in
an Arid River System.” Focusing on the high-growth Middle Rio Grande river
valley, specifically Albuquerque and environs, she says “a calamity is
in the making” as users “pump groundwater faster than rain and runoff
can replenish it.” She reports that even if pumping were to cease, it would
take more than 60 years for the aquifer to recover. As development continues
to gallop out of “sync” with resource availability, the region’s
Native American pueblos and tribes are at risk of losing the most.
Not far away, another urban center is in trouble, as Staff Writer Megan Sever
reports in “The Dwindling Denver Basin.” Here the region is locally
mining 10,000-year-old groundwater and watching well levels drop 30 to 35 feet
per year. Possible interim solutions include conservation and water transfers,
but somehow this seems to be missing the obvious: There may just be a limit
to growth, and perhaps we should slow down, assess the problem and then do the
right thing.
A similar but different dilemma is identified by Staff Writer Naomi Lubick in
“State of the High Plains Aquifer.” A recent report by the U.S. Geological
Survey on the water supply beneath a major portion of the nation’s breadbasket
notes that in spite of drawdown of a common aquifer and the potential for deterioration
of water quality, states still find it inconvenient to collaborate in addressing
the challenges of an uncertain water future. Both here and in Denver, earth
science has a major social science role to play.
Shifting the focus from the American West to the Old World, Avner Vengosh and
colleagues address water quality issues, in “Natural Boron Contamination
in Mediterranean Groundwater”; the story also shifts from water quantity
to water quality. The authors report that the boron standard for drinking water
that the European Union selected in 1998 is considered precautionary rather
than science-based. The diagnosis from recent geologic research in the region
is that boron concentrations in groundwater result from natural processes. The
only way to address health risks, once we know what they might be, is through
costly water treatment. For once it seems that earth science has caught up with
its social science role.
Rounding out the features is this month’s Comment, in which Craig Schiffries
speaks to “Closing the Gap Between Water Science and Water Policy.”
This is exactly the point of our feature articles, isn’t it? Water science
is earth science and water policy is social science, and as Schiffries intimates,
they are still about as distant as are the Old World and the Old West. Water
issues once again highlight the coming and great social role of earth scientists,
should we choose to accept the assignment.
Believe your compass and prepare to run for office,
Samuel S. Adams
Geotimes Editor-in-Chief
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