Friday Week Five

...some questions...

1. What is going on with the WV Water Crisis? Is the water safe to drink? Why are there schools that are cancelling class that show analytical results that are below detection limits for 4-MCHM? Who (locally) is/isn't drinking the water? What is the status of the White House Petition to "Investigate the mismanagement of the WV water disaster by the state and county officials as well as WV American Water"? How does this compare to other important petitions?

 2. What is an aquifer? How does the specific hydrologic definition vary from the more general use of the term? What is porosity? What is connectivity? What is permeability? How is permeability measured? What geologic materials have high permeabilities?

3. Where is the High Plains Aquifer (HPA) located? Why is the HPA such an important source of water? Where (generally) is the vertical thickness of the HPA greatest? Where (generally) are the rates of recharge the greatest? Where (generally) are the greatest rates of groundwater withdrawals for irrigation? Where (generally) is the drop (drawdown) in the surface of the water table greatest? Does this (the locations of areas of greatest drawdown) make sense based on the answers to all of the other #3 questions?

4.  What is groundwater-related subsidence? Why does it happen? Where (geographically) does it happen? Under what circumstance might it be a natural hazard?

5. How does TX use riparian and prior appropriation surface water rights law. What is a "California Doctrine" state? How does TX do groundwater?
 
Slides from today are on Sakai. Your assigned reading for Monday is Chapter 4: An American Nile from Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner (1986, 1991)- it is available as a .pdf on our class Sakai site. All material from today might be covered on the midterm exam. Material covered henceforth (including the reading above) will not be covered on the midterm.