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Another interesting thing that can happen (I don't know if this is a concern in California, but I've heard that it's a major problem in Jakarta, Indonesia) is t
by elihu 10y ago
Another interesting thing that can happen (I don't know if this is a concern in California, but I've heard that it's a major problem in Jakarta, Indonesia) is that if you're close to the ocean, pulling fresh water from the ground can result in the fresh water being displaced by salt water which makes the aquifer useless.
- dubyah 10y agoIt's a problem in SoCal. They mitigate it by using injection wells in coastal areas as a seawater barrier. Orange County's initial efforts of using RO treated wastewater were for seawater barrier injection wells.
- khuey 10y agoThis is a big concern in South Florida. A number of wells had to be moved inland due to salt water intrusion in the aquifer near the coast.
- floatrock 10y agoWe do have this in California, and it's not just aquifers that suffer salt water intrusion. Most people know that LA wouldn't exist if we didn't pump a good chunk of the Colorado to satisfy its thirst. But we also pump a lot of northern california water down there with a massive state aqueduct project. Currently in the delta between SF and Sacramento, there's a huge infrastructure project going on called the Bay Tunnels. It wants to install a pair of water tunnels upstream of the delta to pump water to these state aqueducts that eventually send it down to LA. One reason it's controversial is because pumping out that much water upstream of the delta would cause salt water to encroach up the delta, quite literally salting the fields and causing other watershed environmental issues. More reasons include who's going to pay for it: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-leslie-costs-and-benefits-delta-tunnel-20161120-story.html http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-leslie-costs-and-...