The City of Brownfield recently voted to participate in a feasibility study by the Colorado River Municipal Water Authority to see if our area would be a candidate for storing water underground for later use. This is known as Aquifer Storage and Recovery or ASR.
ASR is basically storing water underground for later use. The Ogallala Aquifer is an unconfined sand and gravel aquifer where water moves very slowly. That makes it well suited for ASR. Water levels in the Ogallala have been drawn down significantly in many areas where the CRMWA member cities have their well fields.
CRMWA thinks ASR has great potential for many of the member cities. There is available CRMWA pipeline capacity and allocation in the off-peak season so that water could be stored during those times. The cities in the South Plains appear to be in the best position to benefit from ASR. Cities served by CRMWA include Amarillo, Borger, Brownfield, Lamesa, Levelland, Lubbock, O’Donnell, Pampa, Plainview, Slaton and Tahoka.
Ideally, existing wells could be retrofitted to inject and extract water from the ASR. In other cases, it might only be possible by adding new injection wells and use existing wells to extract stored water. The feasibility levels will likely vary from city to city.
The feasibility study would examine Brownfield’s existing infrastructure to see what changes/cost would be required to inject and extract CRMWA water in our existing well field. Also, it will examine and evaluate water compatibility to be sure mixing CRMWA water and existing water in our aquifer doesn’t cause aquifer plugging problems. Lastly, the study will determine the direction of water movement in Brownfield’s well field and determine local competition for this stored water.
CRMWA feels the main advantages to ASR appear to be delaying the need for additional pipelines to meet current and future demands. This also allows each city to keep their local groundwater resources longer.
According to Texaslivingwaters.org, ASR projects are likely to become more common. The most recent State Water Plan recommends ASR projects to proved 1.8 percent of Texas’ water supply in coming years – still a small percentage, but double what it was in the 2012 Water Plan.
ASR is “as good as it gets”with regards to the environment. When done carefully and coupled with water conservation, ASR can be one of the more environmentally friendly forms of new water supply. As far as cost is concerned, according to Texaslivingwaters.org, “ASR costs include large, ongoing energy expenses and significant infrastructure costs. However, ASR can help communities avoid many of the financial and ecological costs, including significant evaporative water losses associated with new reservoirs.”
Again, so far ,this is just a feasibility study proposal. The possible actual use of an ASR is a pretty long ways down the road at this point, but it is another idea to help with our dwindling water supply.
(Some information for this story was courtesy of Layne Marlow of the South Plains Underground Water Conservation District.)
