water resources

South Carolina District Court reinstates the Clean Water Act WOTUS rule in twenty-six states

Atlean Lake in British Columbia

On August 16, the South Carolina District Court ruled that President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 13778 to suspend the Obama Administration’s Clean Water Rule was in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. Finalized in 2015, the Clean Water Rule—also called the Waters of the United States or WOTUS rule—clarified the scope of federal water protected under the Clean Water Act. The nationwide halt of the applicability date rule effectively reinstates the WOTUS rule in twenty-six states.

Managing Groundwater Storage

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Background:
Groundwater is a critically important source of water in the U.S., supplying fresh water for drinking supplies, agricultural irrigation, and streams, rivers, and ecosystems. However, groundwater is becoming increasingly depleted in most aquifers around the country, with impacts including shrinking aquifer storage capacities, land subsidence (and associated impacts like higher flood risk), and declining freshwater resources for communities and ecosystems. To mitigate and reverse the depletion of groundwater storage in local aquifers, many communities are turning to managed aquifer recharge (MAR) and aquifer storage and recovery (ASR). MAR and ASR practices vary depending on local geology, groundwater and recharge water composition, local land use practices, and water use requirements. Implementing MAR and ASR requires careful planning to both maximize groundwater replenishment and protect groundwater supplies from contamination.

Our speakers are:

Thank you to our media partners, the American Geophysical Union, American Institute of Professional Geologists, American Meteorological Society, Association of State Wetland Managers, Environmental and Engineering Geophysical Society, Geological Society of America, the Geo-Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers, National Association of State Boards of Geology, National Ground Water Association, and the Soil Science Society of America.

Resources to learn more:

Search the Geological Surveys Database for reports and factsheets about groundwater.

Managed Aquifer Recharge in California

IUGS: Resourcing Future Generations Second Open Call for Proposals

Submitted by mmoses on

IUGS Logo
The International Union of Geological Sciences has posted its second open call for the its global initiative called Resourcing Future Generations (RFG), to bring geoscientists together to address the world's future resource needs head-on. Bids for small top-up grants to take forward discrete pieces of work in support of RFG. Grants will average $3000, but more may be awarded. More information ins available in right sidebar on the linked site. 

EarthComm Earth's Natural Resources: Water Resources and Your Community Activity 5

Here you will find resources to help educators and their students to construct and analyze a physical model of the movement of pollutants in ground water and determine how the pumping of water from wells influences this movement; Measure the level of nitrates in a stream within your community; Conduct a mathematical analysis (case study) of pollution of surface waters by road salt based upon a map, quantitative data, and initial assumptions; Identify and describe ways that human activity affects surface water and ground water quality in your community.

EarthComm Earth's Natural Resources: Water Resources and Your Community Activity 4

Here you will find resources to help educators and their students to construct a water budget of your community from data sets; Explain the influence of local climate on the water budget within your community; Use an understanding of the water budget of your community to identify times of year when both supply and demand are greatest and lowest; Describe key controls on the quantity and availability of surface and ground water in your community; Construct and analyze a box model of an irrigation water budget; Explain how ground water development affects the ground water system.

EarthComm Earth's Natural Resources: Water Resources and Your Community Activity 3

Here you will find resources to help educators and their students to design a method for determining how much fresh water your school uses every day; Analyze water usage statistics for your county and an adjacent county and explain any differences in per-person water usage between your county and an adjacent county; Differentiate between uses of freshwater in the United States and identify these uses as consumptive or nonconsumptive.

EarthComm Earth's Natural Resources: Water Resources and Your Community Activity 2

Here you will find resources to help educators and their students to create and manipulate physicals models of surface-water and ground-water supply systems; Explain how a change in one part of the water supply system creates changes in other parts of the system; Understand the main ways that a community can increase its water supply; Compare and contrast surface-water systems and ground-water systems; Analyze the water supply system in your community.

EarthComm Earth's Natural Resources: Water Resources and Your Community Activity 1

Here you will find resources to help educators and their students to identify and analyze the various sources and distribution of salt water and fresh water on Earth; Interpret data and a topographic map to determine the water sources that your community uses for drinking water; Generate a graphical model of the transport of water between reservoirs within the water cycle; Develop a method of determining the amount of fresh water that could be collected from your school roof and on the entire area of your community in one year.

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - water resources