Aquifer Storage and Recovery as Means to Better Manage Water

摘要

Within the 21st century, many utilities will experience conflicts over water supplies to their customers. The competition will come from upstream of co-located agriculture, power and natural systems. To compound the situation, the most significant competition for water supplies according to United States Geological Survey (USGS), is in areas where people are moving - the south and southwest (the latter of which is more arid than the northeast and midwest). Agriculture has been using groundwater and surface water in the west for over 70 years, and aquifer levels have dropped significantly in many of those same areas due to low precipitation and deep aquifer formations. Climate variability, the loss of snowpack storage and earlier snowmelts are challenges not anticipated 20 years ago by many established utilities. Variation in water supplies throughout the year complicates the situation - for the most part the highest demand periods occur when the precipitation is least in the areas where people live or are moving. These challenges have made water utilities consider options for managing their water supplies. One option that has been explored is aquifer storage and recovery (ASR), one option for managed aquifer recharge.