Title

Environmental Assessment Of Using Stone Quarries As Part Of An Integrative Water Supply System In Fast Growing Urban Regions

Abstract

Global climate change and cyclical droughts threaten water supplies in many cities in the United States and across the world. At the same time, rapid population growth has occurred in many urban regions, bringing additional demand for adequate quantity and quality of drinking water. Development of more watersupply reservoirs is a long-term solution to the threats of droughts, climate change, and population growth. One group of potential sites, namely crushed stone quarries, holds promise for expanding the reservoir capacity in water supply systems. Inspired by the past and future trend of global change and the need to generate adaptive water resources management strategies, this study demonstrates a conceptual evaluative framework with a preliminary assessment of the feasibility of expanding regional water supply systems using abandoned and active stone quarries. Whether or not a particular quarry can be used as a water supply reservoir depends on many factors, such as the size of the quarry and the volume of water that can be stored, the location of the quarry and its distance to the city or community that needs water supply, the source of water that can be diverted into the quarry, the surface runoff from the watershed to the quarry, the evaporative loss of water in the quarry, the groundwater input to the quarry, and the possible contamination from surface and groundwater flows that can affect public health. Our case study in the southeastern United States demonstrates that water storage and aquifer recharge by stone quarry reservoirs must be achieved with caution since water quality may be changed by biogeochemical reactions within aquifer materials. Recharge water may be warmer or cooler than native groundwater and it may dissolve certain minerals while allowing others to precipitate. A quarry reservoir can become thermally stratified during summer if it is deep enough, and this stratification can lead to oxygen depletion in the bottom waters, which may then require hypolimnetic oxygenation (aeration) to improve the water quality.

Publication Date

1-1-2010

Publication Title

Effects of Urbanization on Groundwater: An Engineering Case-Based Approach for Sustainable Development

Number of Pages

26-50

Document Type

Article; Book Chapter

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784410783.ch03

Socpus ID

84973891265 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84973891265

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