Seeking more affordable housing, some rural families live with 'water scarcity' -- even hauling water to their homes

Pagosa Springs, Colorado; Aspen Springs
is 10 miles west. (Wikipedia map, adapted)

Even as U.S. water supplies are decreasing, demand is increasing, and for residents in more arid regions that means working to solve problems in places where housing and land prices are cheaper, but water is scarce. "Some of the most affordable land and housing in Archuleta County can be found in Aspen Springs, Colorado," reports Christi Bode of Rocky Mountain Community Radio. "By definition, Aspen Springs is considered one of the largest subdivisions in the United States. It is also one of the most rural. There is no central water system in this nine-square-mile area, located 10 miles west of downtown Pagosa Springs. . . . Functional roads, utilities, running water, and sewer services were never considered in the original development plans."

Aspen Springs was developed in the 1970s, but 50 years later, the area "still lacks the infrastructure to provide domestic water utilities," Bode explains. "To make living here feasible, a few households have sunk wells to tap into groundwater despite poor water quality and costly drilling fees. While it's hard to pinpoint the number of lots occupied due to the sparse, unregulated nature of the community, it is presumed most households haul water and manually fill a cistern. These large containers hold thousands of gallons of water and are typically stored underground and then pumped through the home's plumbing system."

Many Aspen Springs' families fetch their own water.
(Photo by Christi Bode, KSUT)

Bode reports on one family, Jordan and Kalie Caler, who purchased a home in Aspen Springs, knowing they would have to fetch their water. Kalie told her: "At first, we didn't have a truck to haul water, so that was one thing we definitely had to change quickly when we first moved here. We are pretty fortunate for how close we are to the water-filling stations. Some families do it every day just to stay on top of it so that they don't ever have to worry about running out, especially if you have a bigger family. For us, being a smaller family, we can get by just fine hauling it every week and a half, two weeks."

The water filling stations, as well as all the residential hook-ups in Archuleta County, rely "solely on surface water, or annual precipitation, in the form of snow from the Upper San Juan watershed," Bote adds. Their reliance on the watershed leaves water resources limited. "Growing population demands and a finite water supply, paired with aging infrastructure and new regulations, make it challenging to maintain the water system."

For now, the Calers always keep water conservation in mind. Kalie told Bode: "It just sits in the back of your mind, no matter what you're doing. It affects how you think about your surroundings around the house. We may never get a big lush garden here because of our land, but it definitely makes you think about the seasons, how the water's being used, and where it's going."

Rural residents rely on private wells, but many are contaminated; experts recommend yearly testing

Midwestern wells can be contaminated with bacteria and
nitrates. (Photo via the Iowa Environmental Council)

While millions of rural Americans depend on private wells, many residents do not test their water regularly, even though a lot of the wells can be contaminated. "More than 43 million Americans rely on private wells, which are subject to a patchwork of state and local regulations, including standards for new construction," reports Tony Leys of KFF Health News. "But in most cases, residents are free to use outdated wells without having them tested or inspected. The practice is common despite concern about runoff from farms and industrial sites, plus cancer-causing minerals that can taint groundwater. . . . Federal experts estimate more than a fifth of private wells have concentrations of contaminants above levels considered safe."

"Experts urge all users of private wells to have them tested at least annually," Leys reports. "The main [contaminate] concerns vary, depending on an area's geology and industries. . . In Midwestern farming regions, primary contaminants include bacteria and nitrates, which can be present in agricultural runoff. . . . In rural Nevada and Maine, arsenic and uranium often taint water." PFAS chemicals, also called "forever chemicals," can also contaminate wells.

Allison Roderick, an environmental health officer for Webster County in rural north-central Iowa, where many residents rely on well water for everything from cooking to showering, uses her position to educate people on the danger of contaminated water and the resources to fix it. "Like many states, Iowa offers aid to homeowners who use well water. The state provides about $50,000 a year to each of its 99 counties to cover testing and help finance well repairs or treatment," Leys explains. "The money comes from fees paid on agricultural chemical purchases, but about half goes unused every year, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. . . . Last spring, Roderick snared an extra $40,000 that other counties hadn't used. . . . When she finds contamination, she can offer up to $1,000 of state grant money to help with repairs or up to $500 to cap an abandoned well."

Sydney Evans, a senior science analyst for the Environmental Working Group, a national advocacy organization that studies water pollution, told Leys, "[People think] as long as the water is coming out of the tap and it doesn't smell funny," everything must be OK. Leys reports, "Some longtime rural residents live in homes that have been in their families for generations. They often know little about their water source. . . . David Cwiertny, director of the University of Iowa's Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination, said they might not realize impure water can harm health over time."

Some aquifers are drying up; a scientist explains how understanding groundwater changes could help

James Dennedy-Frank is a hydrologist
researching groundwater recharge.

Can we solve America's groundwater crisis? That depends on a lot of things, but scientists like James Dennedy-Frank, an assistant professor of marine and environmental sciences and civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University in Boston, are working on understanding the multi-faceted issue and finding solutions. In this condensed version of his Q & A with Tanner Stening of Northeastern Global News, Dennedy-Frank explains some of the groundwater crisis highlighted by the recent The New York Times' investigation and details how his research can help.

What is going on with our groundwater, and what prompted the Times investigation?
"The problem is we know that reliable water resources are a critical need, and we’re seeing a lot of places where water resources are becoming less reliable. The Times put together a whole new database of declining water levels nationwide. As we are experiencing more severe drought in lots of places. . . . We’re seeing groundwater levels drop everywhere.

"And that has all kinds of effects. It has effects on the availability of water. A lot of rivers and streams are supported by groundwater, especially through dry seasons. So those rivers and streams are getting lower and flowing less. . . . As a result, [they're] getting warmer because you have less of that cold groundwater flowing in. . . . There’s a whole set of effects here — and this isn’t only happening in the 'arid' West, where you tend to hear about it. . . . I’ll say one thing about groundwater, which is that where there are permits, they’re not usually well enforced, and in many places there aren’t even things like permits, so there are very loose regulations."

How can your research help find solutions?
"I am a hydrologist, and I primarily do watershed simulations. I use computers to represent these watersheds, with the goal of trying to better understand how we can more sustainably manage them.
Most recently, a lot of the work we’ve been doing looks at how groundwater is being recharged, and how rain and snow are related to the streamflow and evapotranspiration — so the water coming through the rivers, and the water being used by vegetation.

"We found that what most recharged the groundwater [water added to the aquifer through the unsaturated zone after infiltration and percolation following any storm rainfall event] in our model of this California watershed is actually the snow from less severe storms. So these really big severe storms recharge that groundwater a lot less. That has important implications as the climate shifts. . ."

Where do you think we’ll be in a decade’s time on this problem?
"Moving forward, our abilities to simulate and better understand these systems are improving, and I think the hope is that people in management roles and government are using these tools and working with academics to better plan and manage the water resources for those hard-hit areas, and thus push towards a more sustainable future."

Much of America's prosperity depends on aquifers, which are failing from overuse, according to NYT report

Climate change contributes to aquifer failure.
(The New York Times illustration)

Part of America's beauty and bounty builds on the riches of its aquifers, which are now damaged and depleted, "revealing a crisis that threatens American prosperity," report Mira Rojanasakul, Christopher Flavelle, Blacki Migliozzi and Eli Murray of The New York Times. Their report is the first of a series on the country's disappearing water. "The Times analyzed water levels reported at tens of thousands of sites and found nearly half the sites have declined significantly over the past 40 years as more water has been pumped out than nature can replenish. . . . In the past decade, four of every 10 sites hit all-time lows. And last year was the worst yet."

Groundwater depletion is so extreme some sources may never return to their previous levels. "Many of the aquifers that supply 90% of the nation's water systems, and which have transformed vast stretches of America into some of the world's most bountiful farmland, are being severely depleted," the Times reports. The investigative team "conducted a months-long examination of groundwater depletion, interviewing more than 100 experts, traveling the country and creating a comprehensive database using millions of readings from monitoring sites. . . . . Huge industrial farms and sprawling cities are draining aquifers that could take centuries or millenniums to replenish themselves if they recover at all."

The crisis is broad and deep -- crisscrossing the nation in varying levels of water loss with no solution in sight. "Groundwater loss is hurting breadbasket states like Kansas, where the major aquifer beneath 2.6 million acres of land can no longer support industrial-scale agriculture. Corn yields have plummeted. If that decline were to spread, it could threaten America's status as a food superpower," the Times reports. "Fifteen hundred miles to the east, in New York State, overpumping is threatening drinking-water wells on Long Island, the birthplace of the modern American suburb and home to working-class towns as well as the Hamptons and their beachfront mansions."

"One of the biggest obstacles is that the depletion of this unseen yet essential natural resource is barely regulated," according to the report. To get at real groundwater data, investigators included "Readings from sophisticated satellites that can estimate groundwater changes from space by measuring subtle shifts in gravity. . . Recent data from those satellites, which are operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and funded by NASA, also show aquifers in decline. . . . Two major California and Arizona aquifers recently matched or exceeded their lowest levels since NASA began collecting data two decades ago."

Sandwiched between hotter temperatures caused by climate change and the crops needing more water to contend with the heat, "farmers and towns have an incentive to pump more groundwater to make up the difference," the Times reports. Warigia Bowman, a law professor and water expert at the University of Tulsa, told the Times: "From an objective standpoint, this is a crisis. . . .There will be parts of the U.S. that run out of drinking water."