Competition for shrinking window of low salinity groundwater

Bibliographic Data

ID15548780
AuthorsGrant Ferguson (0000-0001-8519-1771, University of Saskatchewan, corresponding author), Jennifer C McIntosh (0000-0001-5055-4202, University of Arizona), Debra Perrone (0000-0002-4268-8478, University of California, Santa Barbara), Scott Jasechko (0000-0001-6470-7708, University of California, Santa Barbara)
Year2018
Volume13
Issue11
Pages114013-114013
Publication date2018-10-09
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironmental Research Letters (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326
PublisherIOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1088/1748-9326/aae6d8
OpenAlexW2896682124
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited42

Groundwater resources are being stressed from the top down and bottom up. Declining water tables and near-surface contamination are driving groundwater users to construct deeper wells in many US aquifer systems. This has been a successful short-term mitigation measure where deep groundwater is fresh and free of contaminants. Nevertheless, vertical salinity profiles are not well-constrained at continental-scales. In many regions, oil and gas activities use pore spaces for energy production and waste disposal. Here we quantify depths that aquifer systems transition from fresh-to-brackish and where oil and gas activities are widespread in sedimentary basins across the United States. Fresh-brackish transitions occur at relatively shallow depths of just a few hundred meters, particularly in eastern US basins. We conclude that fresh groundwater is less abundant in several key US basins than previously thought; therefore drilling deeper wells to access fresh groundwater resources is not feasible extensively across the continent. Our findings illustrate that groundwater stores are being depleted not only by excessive withdrawals, but due to injection, and potentially contamination, from the oil and gas industry in areas of deep fresh and brackish groundwater

Aquifer · Brackish water · Geomorphology · Groundwater · Groundwater discharge · Groundwater flow · Hydrology (agriculture · Salinity · Structural basin · Water resource management · Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics · Environmental Science · Groundwater and Isotope Geochemistry · Hydrocarbon exploration and reservoir analysis · Geology · Oceanography

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