US Geological Survey and DEQ: Eastern Shore aquifers largely unaffected by poultry industry

Courtesy of Virginia Mercury

According to an extensive article at Virginia Mercury, water levels in aquifers serving the Eastern Shore have remained steady over the years.

For years, the Eastern Shore has had trouble sustaining its aquifers, underground water reservoirs used for public consumption, and for agricultural and industrial uses.

Data recently collected by the United States Geological Survey in conjunction with the Department of Environmental Quality found that natural processes are affecting surficial aquifers – water that pools above the aquifers near the surface.

The water in those surficial aquifers is being depleted quicker than the surficial aquifers can be refilled in summer months explained Jason Pope, a hydrologist at the USGS Virginia and West Virginia Water Science Center, during an Eastern Groundwater Management Advisory committee meeting at the Department of Environmental Quality last week.

Pope continued, “Regarding withdrawals of groundwater for the Eastern Shore, there do not appear to be significant increases in withdrawals in recent years,” said Pope. “Withdrawal patterns appear [to] have been fairly steady for the past decade or so, with fluctuations based on changing environmental conditions.”

Those monitoring the levels of the aquifers have historically pointed to heavy use of them, particularly among the poultry industry, as a cause for groundwater depletion. But the data recently collected by USGS found an important factor may be environmental processes such as evapotranspiration, when water evaporates from the ground into the air during different times of the year.

“While our recent analyses have better quantified evapotranspiration as a large component of the water budget, there doesn’t appear to be any notable recent increase in evapotranspiration,” Pope stated by email outside of the meeting. “Rather, there appears to be a seasonal cycle of much higher evapotranspiration in the summer, which would be expected.

The data, which will still being gathered through 2024, will guide the Department of Environmental Quality in its permitting decisions for groundwater withdrawal and use by the Eastern Shore’s 45,000 residents, as well as tourists, farmers and industrial users.