What happens when you run out of water? When towns run out of water, it can have catastrophic consequences for the community and the local environment. Running out of well water typically occurs due to over-extraction of groundwater, or inadequate management of water resources.
A bullet point from the Capital Projects Manager noted that the town has plans to connect two new wells to the Water Treatment Plant (WTP) with GHD. They are still awaiting regulatory clearance from the State.
Once cleared, Cape Charles will put the project out to bid.
According to the report, it is crucial that the wells come online by next summer.
The massive influx of tourists is beginning to take a toll on the town’s limited resources. On July 6th, the water treatment plant came within 5,000 gallons of the permitted daily limit.
Questions: How critical is the water supply (a 2nd opinion outside of the town may be prudent), and since the Town is in the process of selling the water and wastewater plants to Virginia American Water, who exactly is going to be paying for the new wells?
Question: How critical is the water supply?
As I read the Cape Charles Mirror from week to week, the only publication left in all of Moronica, er, sorry, got carried away there, I meant America, that isn’t staffed by idiots and fools, I think how lucky I am to not be there in Cape Charles, which could be re-branded as Idiotica for some necessary truth in advertising, especially in this case, because without potable water, there is no town.
And what will adding two new wells solve if they are going into the same aquifer as the other existing wells?
And this is high school stuff – common sense stuff.
Think of a milkshake with one straw in it with someone sucking on that straw. which draws down the milkshake making a visible cone of depression around the straw.
Now add a second straw with a second person sucking on it, and then a third straw and a fourth straw and ask yourself at what point does the milkshake stop going down?
It is the same exact thing with drawing down groundwater – each separate pumped well has a cone of depression, and depending on the proximity of the wells to each other, those cones of depression can interfere with each other, which has an effect on the flow to each well given the groundwater is contained in some type of porous media known as soil, because Cape Charles is not sitting over a fish tank.
The more water pumped, the farther out those cones of depression extend, and the faster water is pumped, the steeper those cones of depression become, as water from somewhere else underground tries to replace the pumped water.
And as I say, this is all very basic high school stuff, and anyone with even a smattering of history, think Rome and all its aqueducts to bring in water, knows the more people you have using a water system, the more water you need, as for planning purposes, the average Virginia resident uses 75 gallons per day in and around their home.
Does Cape Charles have certified morons and idiots on its planning commission?
There is another question for people down there to ponder on this cool Sunday morning with their coffee cups in hand.
Cost of new water wells ultimately the end user higher rates assessment’s service charges nothing new😉
Land subsidence with removing the supporting cushion will yield the same results as elsewhere on both east and west coasts. Then the cry will go up “SEA LEVEL IS RISING! HELP! CLIMATE CHANGE IS HERE! WASHINGTON, SAVE US!”
Water is for fighting whiskey is for drinking