Groundwater phosphorus concentrations: global trends and links with agricultural and oil and gas activities

Warrack, Jessica; Kang, Mary; Sperber, Christian von

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac31ef

Cited by 17 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Anthropogenic contamination from aboveground sources such as agriculture can impact groundwater quality (Ferguson et al, 2018;Warrack et al, 2021). Although we reach similar conclusions regardless of whether TDS measurements in the top 25 m are considered or not, impacts of agriculture on TDS concentrations is likely to be widespread (Suarez, 1989) and irrigated agriculture may also be responsible for the salinization of groundwater deeper than 25 m in the San Joaquin Valley (Schoups et al, 2005;Gillespie et al, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Challenges to the Use of a Base of Fresh Water in Groundwater Management: Total Dissolved Solids vs. Depth Across California

Warrack

Kang

2021

Front. Water

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According to the California Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, the bottom of a basin, and subsequently the depth to which groundwater is managed, can be defined through physical or geochemical qualities of the aquifer. Total dissolved solids (TDS) concentrations are most frequently used to define the basin bottom. However, upper limits in TDS concentrations for “fresh” and “useable” groundwater can range from 1,000 to 10,000 mg/L. To evaluate the applicability of using TDS concentrations to delineate depths subject to sustainable groundwater management, we analyze 216,754 TDS measurements throughout the state of California. We find major challenges to reasonably estimating the BFW with our dataset in 73% of California due to data insufficiencies or complexity introduced by non-montonic TDS-depth relationships. We estimate the BFW in 22% of the Central Valley, a key agricultural region with large groundwater demands and many critically overdrafted groundwater subbasins. Using a TDS limit of 3,000 mg/L, where possible, we estimate the shallowest BFW in the Central Valley to be 155 m below ground surface and the deepest BFW to be 589 m below ground surface. We find that the base of brackish water (TDS < 10,000 mg/L) can extend more than 500 m deeper than the BFW in 78% of the Central Valley where we are able to estimate the BFW, which corresponds to 2% of California. There is a need to evaluate alternative strategies for defining groundwater subject to sustainable management, which likely involves additional measurements and analysis to better characterize groundwater quality with depth throughout California.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 63%

Challenges to the Use of a Base of Fresh Water in Groundwater Management: Total Dissolved Solids vs. Depth Across California

Warrack

Kang

2021

Front. Water

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“…In British Columbia, the first commercial gas well was drilled along the Peace River in 1947 and the first discovery of oil in Alaska occurred in 1957. The density of wells in the ABZ is typically less than 1 km −2 , however some locations can be as dense as 3 km −2 or higher (Warrack et al 2021).…”

Section: Oil and Gas Well Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disturbances in North American boreal forest and Arctic tundra: impacts, interactions, and responses

Foster

Wang²,

Frost³

et al. 2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Ecosystems in the North American Arctic-Boreal Zone (ABZ) experience a diverse set of disturbances associated with wildfire, permafrost dynamics, geomorphic processes, insect outbreaks and pathogens, extreme weather events, and human activity. Climate warming in the ABZ is occurring at over twice the rate of the global average, and as a result the extent, frequency, and severity of these disturbances are increasing rapidly. Disturbances in the ABZ span a wide gradient of spatiotemporal scales and have varying impacts on ecosystem properties and function. However, many ABZ disturbances are relatively understudied and have different sensitivities to climate and trajectories of recovery, resulting in considerable uncertainty in the impacts of climate warming and human land use on ABZ vegetation dynamics and in the interactions between disturbance types. Here we review the current knowledge of ABZ disturbances and their precursors, ecosystem impacts, temporal frequencies, spatial extents, and severity. We also summarize current knowledge of interactions and feedbacks among ABZ disturbances and characterize typical trajectories of vegetation loss and recovery in response to ecosystem disturbance using satellite time-series. We conclude with a summary of critical data and knowledge gaps and identify priorities for future study.

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“…orphaned) wells, despite the >4.6 million people living near documented orphaned wells, including disadvantaged groups. Finally, there are other environmental risks that we have not accounted for such as ecosystem impacts [42,51,52].…”

Section: Current Environmental Monitoring Data Are Not Extensive Enou...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental risks and opportunities of orphaned oil and gas wells in the United States

Kang

Boutot

McVay

et al. 2023

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Hundreds of thousands of documented and undocumented orphaned oil and gas wells exist in the United States (U.S.). These wells have the potential to contaminate water supplies, degrade ecosystems, and emit methane and other air pollutants. Thus, orphaned wells present risks to climate stability and to environmental and human health, which can be reduced by plugging. To quantify environmental risks and opportunities of well plugging at the national level, we analyze data on 81 857 documented orphaned wells across the U.S. We find that > 4.6 million people live within 1 km of a documented orphaned well. 35% of the documented orphaned wells are located within 1 km of a domestic groundwater well, yet only 8% of the wells have groundwater quality data within a 1 km radius. Methane emissions from the documented orphaned wells represent approximately 3%–6% of total U.S. methane emissions from abandoned oil and gas wells, but this estimate is based on measurements at < 0.03% of U.S. abandoned wells. 91% of the documented orphaned wells overlie formations favorable for geologic storage of carbon dioxide and hydrogen, meaning that orphaned well plugging can reduce leakage risks from future storage projects. Finally, we estimate plugging costs for documented orphaned wells to exceed the $4.7 billion federal funding by 30%–80%, emphasizing the importance of prioritizing federal spending on wells with large remediation benefits. Overall, environmental monitoring data are not extensive enough to quantify risks, especially those related to air and water quality and human health. Plugging orphaned wells can provide opportunities for geologic storage of carbon dioxide and hydrogen and geothermal energy development, thereby facilitating efforts to transition to net-zero energy systems. Our analysis on environmental risks and opportunities of orphaned wells provides a framework that can be used to manage the millions of documented and undocumented orphaned wells in the U.S. and abroad.

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Groundwater phosphorus concentrations: global trends and links with agricultural and oil and gas activities

Cited by 17 publications

References 46 publications

Challenges to the Use of a Base of Fresh Water in Groundwater Management: Total Dissolved Solids vs. Depth Across California

Challenges to the Use of a Base of Fresh Water in Groundwater Management: Total Dissolved Solids vs. Depth Across California

Disturbances in North American boreal forest and Arctic tundra: impacts, interactions, and responses

Environmental risks and opportunities of orphaned oil and gas wells in the United States

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