This data was compiled and provided to the Mirror by the citizen group easternshorecog.
Sole Source Aquifer
In 1997, the USEPA designated the groundwater underlying Northampton and Accomack County (except under Tangier and Chincoteague) a “sole source” aquifer. This means that only rainwater “recharges” or replenishes the water we use for drinking and other purposes. Designation of a sole source aquifer means that there is no alternative supply if this resource is depleted or contaminated.
Note our unique system of groundwater was created by a meteor strike 350 million years ago and it is a complex system that is not, even now, fully understood.
There are several layers of clay-like sediments separating our four different sources of groundwater. Between these layers, water is contained and can move slowly within more porous soils. The aquifers are:
1) The surface aquifer, otherwise known as the Columbia aquifer, lies just below the surface and to depths of 60′ or lower in some areas. If this relatively shallow aquifer is utilized at or near its upper limits, it is more susceptible to contamination from pesticides, fertilizers, effluent from septic systems and surface applied manure.
2) The Upper, Middle & Lower Yorktown-Eastover aquifers, which lie under the Columbia, are separated from the shallow aquifer, and each other, by thick layers of clay. These layers act as very fine filters cleaning and slowing the replenishing downward flow enormously. The Upper and Middle Yorktown aquifers are the preferred source for potable (drinkable) water. As depth increases below them, the water quality decreases and becomes “briny”.
*RECHARGE OF OUR DRINKING WATER
The primary soils that are permeable enough to let rainwater seep into our aquifers lie along the “spline”, or the Route 13 corridor. In this important zone we should discourage any development that creates “impermeable surfaces” such as parking lots that prevent rain water from seeping into the ground. Instead, we should encourage growth in our towns which lie closer to the Seaside and Chesapeake Bay. The following recharge rates should give us all pause for thought about wasting, misusing or contaminating our valuable water resource.
The annual rainfall on the Shore averages 44”, but the vast majority of that water is drained to our coasts through drainage ditches, streams, and creeks. It is also lost to surface evaporation or transpiration (plants). Only 6” makes its way to the shallow aquifer. But only 0.05” of that rainwater recharges or replenishes our Yorktown aquifers. Indeed, when you turn on your tap, you are using groundwater that (in the Upper Yorktown) has been underground for 300-3,000 years and in the lower aquifers could be as old as 10,000 years. The most often quoted statistic, yet subject to debate, is that we historically withdraw on average 10 million gallons/day (gpd) of water from our Yorktown aquifer, but only recharge it (rain) by 9 mgd.
*SALT WATER INTRUSION
Because of density differences, our fresh water underground “bubble” of potable water “floats” on seawater or saltier resources. So as the Upper and Middle Yorktown aquifers are steadily depleted, areas along the Chesapeake Bay and the Seaside can, and in some instances, are experiencing higher levels of salt in their drinking water supplies. High salt levels in drinking water are unpleasant, can be deleterious to health and not meet the Health Department requirements for municipal use. There is new technology to remove salt from drinking water, and the price of these treatment facilities has dropped over the last several years. Removing even small amounts of salt is very expensive and maintenance intensive.
*THE INDUSTRIAL POULTRY BUILD OUT AND ITS POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS ON GROUNDWATER
Any potential user of our groundwater slated to use over 300,000 gallons of water each month is required to get a groundwater withdrawal permit from the State Water Control Board [See 62.1-263], an arm of the DEQ and both are currently working on this issue regarding the 250+ industrial poultry broiler houses that are either operating, proposed, or under construction in Accomack County. Note that on paper, the SWCB is directed to protect water for human consumption over “all other uses” if total water supplies are deemed “insufficient”.
However, so far the SWQB has not made that ruling and the poultry houses can and will use the Yorktown, further exacerbating the decline of this critical source. Estimates are that the water use by 83 poultry facilities (multiple houses on one site) in Accomack County needing permits can range as high as 4.7 million gallons/day from our Yorktown. Some estimate that if they are encouraged to use the shallow aquifer for cooling water, this number could come down to 3.2 mgd…still an astounding number!
*WHAT CAN YOU DO?
It is imperative that we encourage the DEQ and the State Water Control Board to live up to their legislative mandate and encourage the industrial poultry users to withdraw all of their groundwater needs from the highly recharged Columbia Aquifer rather than our depleting Yorktown reserves. To make this plea:
Email the director at DAVID.PAYLOR@VIRGINIA.GOV or call 804-698-4020. Also contact your local, state, and federal representatives and attend local Board of Supervisors.
Reference: www.virginiaplaces.org/watersheds/eshoregw.html
About the Author
Three very good articles presented in the Mirror this weekend. They involve the fresh ground-water supply for the Eastern Shore. The Shore, as I understand it is provided natural freshwater from two aquifers. The Yorktown/Eastover aquifer, located further north serves Acccomac County, while Columbia aquifer services the southern end located in Northampton County.
The other articles in this week’s edition is entitled “Are Accomack Poultry Farms Drawing Water Illegally?” and “Precedent-setting Permits Must Set High Bar for Virginia Poultry Houses, CBF Says” are both worth the read as well. The comments gathering there are interesting and enlightening. I decided to place my comment there, because I understand the science behind this.
One truth that has been left out, although alluded to is this: At the time of the crater impact (approximately 35 million years ago – give or take a few hundred thousand years) a vast ancient sea rushed in to fill the fifty some mile diameter hole created by this extraterrestrial visitor. This ancient sea is what holds up the fresh water aquifer (Columbia) that now supplies Cape Charles and all of the rest of Northampton with drinking/washing water. Of the two aquifers supplying the Eastern Shore, this aquifer is the shallower of the two. The precariousness of this situation cannot be over stated. It is more vulnerable to above ground leaching (septic tanks, farm fertilizers, automobile run-off…to name a few) And just because the situation has remained unchanged for generations, doesn’t mean that your guard should be down. The situation to the north is even more precarious due to stresses applied by farming factories and the continual draw down of resources since the early seventies. Use this number when you think about the amounts used…it takes four hundred and sixty-eight gallons of water to process ONE pound of chicken. The Yorktown/Eastover Aquifer is solely providing water to process this meat. Folks in and around Accomack have seen a significant loss of well levels in the past fifty years. Some wells have to be dropped over two hundred feet!
Now, I haven’t even mentioned the additional CAFO’s either put in place already or those that are being planned. And I haven’t mentioned the spread of manure and by product planned on layering the fields (top soil) covering thousands of square acres. Where does the simplest of elements go when they break down? Down, into the aquifer. To put a fine point on it, you folks are looking at the perfect storm for cancers, respiratory issues, tumors and a myriad of illnesses I cannot even begin to list or imagine. This is all to the tune of two companies that have introduced a farming process that the land just cannot handle over time. The cross road is here. You (the folks of the Eastern Shore – both counties) need to decide whether this can continue and can be regulated, monitored and controlled. OR…let things ride as they are going and risk the chance that NOTHING will occur that is proportional to disaster. Those are the choices. There is a third, but no one sees that ever happening until the second does occur.
I realize that both Perdue and Tyson provide a cheap source of protein. They also provide employment and livelihoods for thousands of workers. It is a necessary and integral thread in the fabric of the community. But, because of growth, and past mismanagement of this growth and the disposal of by product, these farm factories must be regulated! Methods must change. The damage incurred by these processing plants is literally draining the fresh water you drink and bathe in. In future years, there will be a massive failure of this aquifer. No two ways about it.
So, you have a choice. Do nothing, eat chicken fingers. Or get out to the Supervisors of your two counties and let them hear your voice. Let them know that you have read up on the aquifers and their known fragility and you want a close monitoring of said aquifer. Regulations require adequate laws. Laws require learned minds poring over the issues and concluding in favor of what is just and right for the majority. To create these laws, you need honest men and women in positions that favor what is right and for the majority. It ain’t rocket science here. Locally, your voices matter. The more vocal you become, the more inclined they are to listen. It’s your water, people. It is finite. There is not a magic wand that is going to be waved at some point to clear this all up. Once it is gone…it’s gone. Once you cannot drink it, you can no longer live there. To live there will become very, very costly. So, think about what is happening in your own back yards. Think of the risks being taken to profit two companies and to employ a few thousand workers. Decide what is more important. Today’s bottom line or tomorrow’s future. The cross road is here. The time is now.
The source of water for the Cape Charles municipal water system is the Yorktown/Eastover aquifer, not the Columbia aquifer. The latter is utilized for irrigation via shallow wells. The Columbia sits on top of the Yorktown/Eastover aquifer.
This is true, Bob. For most and definitely for municipalities. But, it is also a fact that some shallow driven wells in Northampton county are being used for potable water. A lot of poorer rural folks cannot afford to drive down a hundred or more feet to reach the Yorktown/Eastover. So, they use the higher aquifer. This is the one that catches the leach water. Just saying. My point was this…you have two dangers with both aquifers. The Columbia, which is in danger of chemical and animal wastes contamination and the Middle Yorktown/Eastover, which is in danger of being breached by the salt water just below it. Science has shown there are a number of ways this could occur, specifically, by over use. To finalize, ALL legislation regulating water consumption should be closely monitored by the populace of the Eastern Shore. Your very existence and ability to live there, depends on that. Can I be any clearer?