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| Despite the fact that Louisiana has an abundant amount of bayous, rivers and lakes, plus averaging 120 days of rain a year, the state is on the verge of running out of drinkable water. |
In California the problem is very simple. The state suffers from perpetual droughts and the farmers in the state have tapped into the water table in order to water their crops. These farmers have nearly drained a water supply that took thousands of years to establish dry.
Here in Louisiana farmers are also mostly to blame but major industries like oil and gas have also been sucking the state dry.
When you look around it would seen unfathomable that a state with all these lakes and rivers plus constant rain could have a water problem.
Before I get into that NPR article I want to share my own personal experience in working in the environmental industry here in Louisiana. To be blunt the state of wastewater plant infrastructure in the state is abysmal at best. One of my tasks was to contact local entities when their test results were above the limits set by the state for their individual water districts. Everyday I would come in and there would be a pile of test results on my desk. I would begin contacting local entities one by one to give them the bad news that their water system was in violation. Almost to a person I would here the same story over and over.
"I know the water we are pumping out is contaminated, but we simply don't have the money and resources to fix it, so we just pay the fines to the state."
Yes, you read that right, wastewater plants here in Louisiana are pumping contaminated water in to local rivers.
One mayor I talked to stated that he was very afraid of having to discharge into the river because he knew it emptied into a local lake where people love to go swimming.
That should scare you.
But there is more bad news. I was also tasked with notifying the state when a city or town needed to issue a Boil Advisory. In case you don't know what that is, a Boil Advisory is issued when the drinking water system fails for one reason or another and local residents will have to boil their water to kill bacteria before they can use it for consumption or food preparation.
As you can imagine, I was on the phone with state on a regular basis. Local drinking water plants are in just about as bad a shape as the wastewater plants. The only difference here is that because these plants supply drinking water the local entities have no choice but to try and fix the issue so that the Boil Advisory could be lifted. Sometimes the fix was easy and other times it may take weeks for the water to be tested and certified safe by the state.
Long story short, when it comes to water infrastructure here in Louisiana things are in very bad shape. The system is failing and indeed fails at an alarming rate.
Ad that information to this piece from NPR and it paints a scary picture for the future of the state.
Louisiana is known for its losing battle against rising seas and increasingly frequent floods. It can sometimes seem like the state has too much water. But the aquifers deep beneath its swampy landscape face a critical shortage.
Groundwater levels in and around Louisiana are falling faster than almost anywhere else in the country, according to U.S. Geological Survey data. An analysis by the Investigative Reporting Workshop and WWNO/WRKF traced the problem to decades of overuse, unregulated pumping by industries and agriculture, and scant oversight or action from legislative committees rife with conflicts of interest.
Experts warn that all of these factors threaten the groundwater that nearly two-thirds of Louisianans rely on for drinking and bathing. Combined with the expected effects of climate-fueled heat and drought, it puts Louisiana on the brink of a groundwater crisis more common in Western states.
"Will restaurants no longer be able to put a giant glass of water on your table when you go in to have your seafood platter?" asks Craig Colten, a Louisiana State University professor who has studied water issues for years. "Will there be limits on how frequently you can wash your car in your driveway or water your lawn?"
Agriculture consumes more than 61% of Louisiana's groundwater. In part, that's because a centuries-old law gives landowners "ultimate dominion" over the groundwater beneath their property.
When it comes time to flood his rice fields in southwestern Louisiana, sixth-generation farmer Christian Richard just flips a switch. Within seconds, crystal clear water gurgles up a 120-foot well and shoots out a short spout, right into the field.
It's simple, easy and free.
"I think that ultimately, rice will be grown in the areas where the water is the cheapest and the most readily available," Richard says.
But the Chicot Aquifer he draws from is losing water faster than it can be replenished. It's being overdrawn by about 350 million gallons a day. And that's creating another threat: saltwater intrusion.
Overpumping reduces the downward pressure exerted by the aquifer's fresh water, giving seawater from the Gulf of Mexico room to move in and fill the void. Aquifers in other parts of the state are also dealing with saltwater intrusion, but the Chicot's proximity to the coast exacerbates the problem here, says Christine Kirchhoff, a national water resources management and policy researcher at the University of Connecticut.
"You might have a well that is functioning just fine now," Kirchhoff says, "but once salt contaminates fresh water, it's done. That's it. You no longer have that well."
Louisiana's oil and gas refineries, paper mills and other industries are other major groundwater users. Our investigation finds they draw more of it than industries in any other state except California.
Industry also has an outsized influence when it comes to regulating Louisiana's water.
READ MORE
Groundwater levels in and around Louisiana are falling faster than almost anywhere else in the country, according to U.S. Geological Survey data. An analysis by the Investigative Reporting Workshop and WWNO/WRKF traced the problem to decades of overuse, unregulated pumping by industries and agriculture, and scant oversight or action from legislative committees rife with conflicts of interest.
Experts warn that all of these factors threaten the groundwater that nearly two-thirds of Louisianans rely on for drinking and bathing. Combined with the expected effects of climate-fueled heat and drought, it puts Louisiana on the brink of a groundwater crisis more common in Western states.
"Will restaurants no longer be able to put a giant glass of water on your table when you go in to have your seafood platter?" asks Craig Colten, a Louisiana State University professor who has studied water issues for years. "Will there be limits on how frequently you can wash your car in your driveway or water your lawn?"
Agriculture consumes more than 61% of Louisiana's groundwater. In part, that's because a centuries-old law gives landowners "ultimate dominion" over the groundwater beneath their property.
When it comes time to flood his rice fields in southwestern Louisiana, sixth-generation farmer Christian Richard just flips a switch. Within seconds, crystal clear water gurgles up a 120-foot well and shoots out a short spout, right into the field.
It's simple, easy and free.
"I think that ultimately, rice will be grown in the areas where the water is the cheapest and the most readily available," Richard says.
But the Chicot Aquifer he draws from is losing water faster than it can be replenished. It's being overdrawn by about 350 million gallons a day. And that's creating another threat: saltwater intrusion.
Overpumping reduces the downward pressure exerted by the aquifer's fresh water, giving seawater from the Gulf of Mexico room to move in and fill the void. Aquifers in other parts of the state are also dealing with saltwater intrusion, but the Chicot's proximity to the coast exacerbates the problem here, says Christine Kirchhoff, a national water resources management and policy researcher at the University of Connecticut.
"You might have a well that is functioning just fine now," Kirchhoff says, "but once salt contaminates fresh water, it's done. That's it. You no longer have that well."
Louisiana's oil and gas refineries, paper mills and other industries are other major groundwater users. Our investigation finds they draw more of it than industries in any other state except California.
Industry also has an outsized influence when it comes to regulating Louisiana's water.
READ MORE
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