We Need Sustainable Groundwater Use in Virginia

USGS  2010

According to the U.S. Geological Survey estimates for 2010 Virginia uses 299 million gallons of groundwater each and every day which is about 20% of all fresh water consumed daily in Virginia (this excludes use for thermal electric power generation). Of this groundwater use the three largest categories of use are public supply groundwater wells (71 million gallons a day), private/rural water wells (124 million gallons a day) and self-supplied industrial wells (74 million gallons a day) Domestic water use includes indoor and outdoor use at homes and apartments in Virginia for drinking, food preparation, washing clothes and dishes, bathing and flushing toilets. Common outdoor uses are watering lawns and gardens or maintaining pools or landscape features at your home. Domestic water is either self-supplied or provided by public water companies. Industrial use would be manufacturing sites including paper mills, printing companies, breweries and wineries. Public supply water wells supply community domestic and commercial needs like churches, schools and offices.

According to the USGS data, the 124 million gallons a day of self-supplied domestic water from private wells provides 1,650,000 Virginians or 21% of the population of the Commonwealth with their water. These rural or semi-rural wells are drilled in rural or semi-rural locations throughout Virginia. Nationally only about 14% of domestic water is from private wells. The typical Virginian uses 75 gallons of water a day for all domestic uses and is the same for public supplies households as well as households supplied by private well. In most states, households on private well use less water than those on public water supplies.

Despite being a very rural state, less than 3% of fresh water withdrawn from rivers, streams, and groundwater is used for agriculture. It rains in Virginia and only 1.4% of fresh water is used for irrigation which includes water for crop irrigation, frost protection, application of chemicals, weed control, field preparation, crop cooling, harvesting, dust suppression, as well as watering of golf courses, parks, nurseries, turf farms, cemeteries, and landscape-watering for businesses and public buildings.

At one firth of the total water supply groundwater is an important component of the water supply. Sustainable groundwater use in Virginia is not tracked or managed by DEQ or any other agency for that matter. Groundwater is not unlimited. Our groundwater is at risk. Despite the water rich climate of our region, the Atlantic Coastal Plain aquifer is under stress and is being used beyond it recharge rate. This has been confirmed by measurements of groundwater levels, modeling of the aquifer system by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and measurements of changes in gravity by the GRACE satellite project at NASA over the past 12 years of data collecting.

The rate of groundwater withdrawal from the Virginia Coastal Plain is currently unsustainable. The withdrawal rate of groundwater increased continuously during the 20th century. By the 2003 the withdrawal rates from Coastal Plain aquifers in Virginia totaled approximately 117 million gallons per day (DEQ). As a result, groundwater levels have declined by as much as 200 feet near the large withdrawal centers of West Point and Franklin, Virginia the home of paper mills that are large industrial users of groundwater. The water level has continued to fall despite the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VA DEQ) attempting to regulate groundwater withdrawals in the Virginia Coastal Plain through the VA DEQ Groundwater Withdrawal Permit Program over the past 12 years. To make that groundwater sustainable, we need to reduce use or increase recharge otherwise Virginia will find that areas within the historic boundary of the aquifer begin to go dry. In order to prevent this first Virginia needs to know how much groundwater there is and what is sustainable use is. Groundwater resources are property and should be protected for all property owners.

Less is known about the sustainability of the smaller groundwater basins in the region, but their problems are still at a more manageable stage. Our own Culpeper Basin that feeds the private wells in the Rural Crescent of Prince William and areas of Loudoun and Fauquier counties as well as areas beyond our region. We now have tools (groundwater models and data from the GRACE project) that can help develop a picture of the volume of the water within the groundwater basin and at what rate it is being used and at what rate it is being recharged. We need to know if the current and planned use of our groundwater is sustainable even in drought years. An understanding of the impact on our essential water resources from ground cover by roads and buildings impacting recharge to proposed water withdrawals can be used to determine if a proposed additional use of groundwater is sustainable before it is granted.

How any proposed land use, or business or building impact water and groundwater sustainability should be one of the first questions asked. The right of existing property owners to their water is primary and valuable and should not be compromised or impaired to generate profits for others by the taking of their rights to their water. Because there are natural fluctuations in groundwater levels it is easy to mask or ignore signs of the beginnings of destruction of the water resources that we depend on. The USGS has been smoothing the water level data from at least one well in our region to eliminate what appeared to be an anomaly, but instead may be the first indications of a problem. Fluctuations in climate or rainfall and imperfect measurements and vantage points mask trends from clear view.

How the resource is owned or not owned can potentially create a resource abusive atmosphere where taking what I can without regard for sustainability is rewarded for a period of time. No groundwater resource is infinite and we need to preserve and protect our groundwater which belongs to all the landowners by recognizing its value, that it is property and by using it sustainably. The permitting process for zoning changes and building permits for large users of groundwater needs to examine and consider the impact on and sustainable use of groundwater resources in that area. The rights to groundwater need to be quantified, so they can be protected.

Regulating and Controlling Groundwater

On September 16, 2014, Governor Brown of California signed into law a three-bill legislative package, composed of AB 1739, SB 1168, and SB 1319, collectively known as the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. that effectively ended unrestricted groundwater pumping in California.

California is the last of the Western states to enact groundwater monitoring and regulate use, though groundwater regulation and attempts at management is still the exception here in the east. Groundwater provides 35%-65% of all water used in California- in dry years groundwater makes up much of the shortfall in irrigation allocations for farmers. In addition, almost 21 million of the total 38 million Californians depend on groundwater for all or part of their drinking water. It was the running dry of small community wells and many private drinking water wells all over the central valley that provided the public acceptance to regulate groundwater.

The Groundwater Management Act was first introduced in 1992 as Assembly Bill 3030, and then modified by Senate Bill 1938 in 2002 and Assembly Bill 359 in 2011. It was only the severity of the current drought when groundwater use was reportedly providing 65% of the water for the state and groundwater levels fell by 60 feet in some places with thousands of wells going dry that Governor Brown and the legislature found the political will to pass and implement the law. Water has always been a contentious issue in California.

The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act went into effect at the beginning of 2015. The Act requires the state’s Department of Water Resources to identify groundwater basins, and these basins in turn must establish local groundwater sustainability agencies and develop groundwater management and monitoring plans. These plans, which require each basin to achieve “groundwater sustainability” by 2040, must be completed within five or seven years, depending on the priority assigned to the groundwater basin by regulators.

It is expected that the local groundwater sustainability agencies will require registration of groundwater wells, require annual pumping/extraction reports from individual wells, impose limits on well extractions- develop a basis for rationing groundwater, and assess fees to support creation and adoption of a groundwater sustainability plans. The aim of the legislation is to create a regulatory structure to have groundwater basins managed within the sustainable yield of each basin and allocate the usable water. Tricky stuff.

There is certainly a need to ensure that groundwater is used sustainably, but how the law is implemented, the sustainability determined and managed and entitlement to water determined is important and could serve as an example if watersheds are able to successfully manage the groundwater sustainably through droughts and wet years in a manner that is fair and just. California historically has favored command and control forms of regulations that do not easily evolve or moderate with changing circumstances.

Now, however, we have the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite mission from NASA that has been collecting data for more than a decade and can measure if total groundwater content is stable, rising or declining. The GRACE satellites measure monthly changes in total earth water storage by converting observed gravity anomalies measured from space and can serve as a tool for groundwater management to see if the plans are actually sustainable. Though, unfortunately, the tools available to develop the water management plans are less accurate and it might be difficult to determine if the sustainability plan is actually being implement correctly is simply not a sustainable plan.Communities could become locked into detailed groundwater sustainability plans that simply dod not work.

Our groundwater, too, is at risk. Despite the water rich climate of our region, the Atlantic Coastal Plain aquifer is under stress and is being used beyond it recharge rate. It is only a matter of time until areas within the historic boundary of the aquifer begin to go dry. Groundwater in the Coastal Plain region in eastern Virginia is being used up. This has been confirmed by measurements of groundwater levels, modeling of the aquifer system by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and measurements of changes in gravity by the GRACE project at NASA.

The rate of groundwater withdrawal from the Virginia Coastal Plain is currently unsustainable. The withdrawal rate of groundwater increased continuously during the 20th century. By the 2003 the withdrawal rates from Coastal Plain aquifers in Virginia totaled approximately 117 million gallons per day. As a result, groundwater levels had declined by as much as 200 feet near the large withdrawal centers of West Point and Franklin, Virginia the home of paper mills. Since 2003 the water level has continued to fall despite the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VA DEQ) regulating groundwater withdrawals in the Virginia Coastal Plain through the VA DEQ Groundwater Withdrawal Permit Program. To make that groundwater sustainable, we need to reduce use or increase recharge.  

Less is known about the sustainability of the Culpeper Basin that feed the private wells in the Rural Crescent of Prince William and areas of Loudoun and Fauquier counties; and my home. I watch how some of my neighbors use water and think of “The tragedy of the Commons,” by Garreth Hardin that was published in Science, December 13, 1968. The concept from the article that has survived is that what is a free and common resource is abused. Hardin said “Freedom in the commons brings ruin to all.” Because of fluctuations in “renewable” resources it is easy to mask or ignore signs of the beginnings of destruction of the water resources that we depend on. Fluctuations in climate or rainfall and imperfect measurements and vantage points mask trends from clear view. Also, how the resource is owned or not owned can potentially create a resource abusive atmosphere where taking what I can without regard for sustainability is rewarded for a period of time. No groundwater resource is infinite and we need to preserve and protect our groundwater by using it sustainably.

Farm Breweries in Loudoun Permitted to Use Millions of Gallons of Water

With the passage of SB 430 last year, Virginia created an easy to obtain limited brewery license for breweries that operate on a farm. Specifically these breweries must manufacture no more than 15,000 barrels of beer per calendar year, be located on a farm in Virginia, and use agricultural products that are grown on that farm in the brewing of the beer. These “limited breweries” are simply what is known nationally as craft breweries with a rural twist. This bill holds the potential to create a rural destination brewery to complement the growing wine industry in a state that remains largely agricultural.

Local counties went on to create their own ordnance beginning with Loudoun County the home of a growing wine industry. In addition to the requirements set out in the state law, Loudoun’s ordinance requires farm breweries to have at least ten acres of land; the building structure is not subject limitations beyond the ARI 11% lot coverage. Loudoun was the first county in Virginia to incorporate the state code into its local zoning ordinance and their experience will impact how these limited breweries are handled here in Prince William and elsewhere in Virginia.

Beer production is not often associated with environmental issues since it is not a “smokestack industry”. Excluding an accidental spill of a hazardous chemical such as anhydrous ammonia or chlorine (typically used to treat water), the main discharge from beer production is wastewater. However, these new limited breweries will all be built in an agricultural areas serviced by private ground water wells to supply the water and septic to treat the water and that can create a problem.

Beer is about 95% water; however the amount of water used to produce a pint of beer is far greater that the amount of water contained in the beer. Although water usage varies widely among breweries and is dependent upon specific processes, the U.S. average is about 7 gallons of water for each gallon of beer produced, but varies from 3.26-7.44 gallons of water to gallons of beer. That figure is from the 2011 study by the Beverage Industry Environmental Roundtable (BIER). Craft breweries tend to be on the higher end of the range because small packaging uses more water and the size of the brewery, but water recycling equipment packages are available. According to the BIER study facilities with larger production volumes tend to have lower water use ratios. It seems that smaller craft breweries do not have or cannot afford water recycling equipment and staffing.

Nationally, most craft brewers obtain their water from municipal water companies. However, these farm breweries will more typically be supplied by well water, and the sustainability of our groundwater resources needs to be considered when permitting a water intensive business. Regionally, water sustainability is a growing issue. Let’s take a look at how water intensive a brewery is. Loudon recently licensed a brewery, B-Chord Brewery, in Bluemont. This brewery is currently under construction down the road from my sister-in-law and brother-in-law, and this water intensive business will be drawing their water from a series of three existing wells.

If B-Chord Brewery has applied for a permit to manufacture and sell up to 10,000 barrels of beer annually on-site (only two thirds of the maximum under the regulation) and also, sell off-site. Each beer barrel contains 31 gallons of beer; so, the B-Chord Brewery is asking for a license to manufacture and sell up to 310,000 gallons of beer annually from about 26 acres. At the industry average water use per gallon of beer that will require 2,170,000 gallons of water each year or 41,730 gallons of water weekly. That is the equivalent water use of more than 79 people Every. Day. Forever. Loudoun County assumes that the water use ration will be a more modest 6 gallons of water needed for each gallon of beer. That is still 1,860,000 gallons of water pumped a year or the average annual water use of 69 people. All this water pumped out of the aquifer under a 26 acre parcel which may or may not be sustainable water use despite being two and a half times the required amount of land. I have ignored the water use for irrigation for the moment. The impact on groundwater resources should be considered on any future breweries.

from K. Rapp

Loudoun County has very complex geology. Western portion of the county where the B-Chord Brewery is consists of older metamorphic rocks and granite west of the Bull Run Fault that runs north-south near Route 15. Modern wells are drilled past the water table to draw water from water bearing fractures in the bedrock. The groundwater that feeds the wells exists in water–filled and interconnected fractures, pores and cavities in the rock. The size and density of the pores and fractures vary with rock type, depth and location.

When a well pumps, a cone of depression develops in the water table around the well as the water is pumped out of the well. When several wells are operated in a limited area the cone of depression in one well may affect the water level in another. Continued high volume pumping of three wells on the B-Chord Brewery property could possibly cause the water table to drop and potentially dewater the wells in the immediate area. In addition, this could change the gradient of the water table and draw the base flow from nearby creeks. In truth, Loudoun County does not know the water content of the aquifer and what is the sustainable withdrawal rate for the groundwater in this area. There are groundwater models and data available that could model what is sustainable use is and this should be done before allowing any additonal high volume pumping of the wells impacts the water table.

You may be thinking there haven’t been any problems with the recent proliferation of wineries, and that is true. While wineries are also water intensive, most of the water use is for irrigation which is supplied to a large extent by rainfall and the waste water from washing crush tanks and bottles. The water used in the actual making of the wine is 1.5-3 gallons of water per gallon of wine and most of that is used for washing tanks and bottles. The grapes themselves contain the liquid. Basically an acre of land grows 3.3 tons of wine grapes. Each ton of grapes produces 780 bottles of wine. There are 12 bottles in a case and a boutique winery produces less than 10,000 cases a year which translates into 23,810 gallons of wine. So, the water needed to make 10,000 cases of wine would be 71,430 gallons of water which is less than the annual water use of three people. In addition, the land necessary to grow the grapes for 10,000 cases of wine would be a little less than 47 acres-a far less intense water use.

To make beer you have to malt a base grain usually barley but rye, maize, rice and oatmeal can also be used. In the first stage the grain is malted to convert the carbohydrates to dextrin and maltose which is a several day process requiring lots of water. The malt is crushed using iron rollers and transferred to the mash tank. Water is also needed to extract the sugars from the grain in the mash tank. The resulting liquor, known as sweet wort, is then boiled in a copper vessel with hops, which give a bitter flavor and helps to preserve the beer. The hops are then separated from the wort and it is passed through chillers into fermenting vessels where the yeast is added to convert the sugars into alcohol. The beer is then chilled, centrifuged and filtered to clarify it; it is then ready for bottling or drinking.

from the IEHS

Despite significant improvement this century water consumption and wastewater disposal are the biggest environmental hurdles that breweries and the brewing process face. Many breweries in other parts of the county have found innovative solutions for water and wastewater management that can be adapted to our local needs. These solutions go beyond facility water conservation programs to find collaborative, sustainable solutions for the community and for the environment and needs to be part of the development of the industry in our communities. We need to ensure that our use of our local water resources remains sustainable. See also Doing Breweries Right in Prince William County .

Sustainable Groundwater in Virginia

USGS groundwater monitoring well Prince William County, VA

It’s almost spring here on the edge of rural Virginia and time to think about the water supply. Last year was a dry summer over much of the continental United States and groundwater levels in Virginia were negatively impacted. The snow, sleet, and rain we’ve had in the past two months have soaked the ground ending the drought conditions lingering from last year. If your water like mine is supplied by a well, you need to be aware of the factors that impact your water supply and practice household water conservation in times of drought or low supply to live within your annual water resources. There are dry years and wet years and water availability will vary, though it is not always obvious. The groundwater aquifer you tap for water is not seen and has no supply gauge, but still you have to be aware of your water budget and live within it, something that transplants from the suburbs and city are not always aware of. No water supply is unlimited and a well is limited by the aquifer and age and condition of the well and you need to be aware of your water use. 

The good news for us in Virginia is that according the U.S. Drought Monitor, Virginia is no longer in drought conditions, but the U. S. Geological Survey, USGS, is still showing 20% of the groundwater monitoring wells in Virginia at below average water levels for this time of year. A deluge of heavy rains could change that in a hurry since the soil in our region is no longer dry.  I feel quite lucky that the monitoring well up the road from my house is showing a higher than average water level for the 39 years of monitoring data the USGS has. Nonetheless, unless my neighbors and I use the groundwater sustainably, we could all run out of water during the dog days of summer.

This low spot off Logmill Road took 36 hours to soak in after the last rain.

The water level in a groundwater well usually fluctuates naturally during the year. Groundwater levels tend to be highest in the spring in response to winter snowmelt and spring rainfall when the groundwater is recharged. Groundwater levels begin to fall in May and typically continue to decline during summer as plants and trees use the available shallow groundwater to grow and streams draw water to supplement their flow. Natural groundwater levels usually reach their lowest point in late September or October when fall rains begin to recharge the groundwater again.

The natural fluctuations of groundwater levels are most pronounced in shallow wells that are most susceptible to drought. Older wells in areas near springs and rivers tend also to be shallow, because they were installed before modern equipment in the shallow first aquifer that is immediately impacted in drought. Most modern wells are drilled wells that penetrate about 100-400 feet into the bedrock.  However, deeper wells may be impacted by an extended drought and take longer to recover. In addition, water production in a well tends to decrease over time because sediment builds up in a well. To provide a reliable supply of water, a drilled well must intersect bedrock fractures containing ground water and the natural occurring sediment, minerals and slime producing bacteria can clog those fractures over time. Without a geological event like an earthquake, groundwater changes tend to happen slowly as water use grows with increased population or irrigation and recharge is impacted by adding paved roads, driveways, houses and other impervious surfaces diminishing the water supply over time.

Groundwater and surface water are interconnected, yet the law in Virginia and most of the east coast treats surface water rights differently from groundwater rights. The rights to surface water in Virginia, as well as in most Eastern states, are allocated based on the riparian doctrine. This rule gives an owner of land bordering on water the right to use that water so long as the use does not unreasonably affect the water available to other riparian land owners. Rights to groundwater, on the other hand, are governed by the American Rule. This permits an unlimited use of groundwater beneath one’s land so long as it is not wasteful and is used in a manner consistent with the use of the land lying above the water even if your water use impairs your neighbor’s well. This potentially leaves groundwater in the eastern states subject to unsustainable use and as our water resource are needed to serve more and more people we need to develop sustainable methods of managing groundwater and the rights to the water.