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Water Resources Sustainability and Safe Yield in West Virginia

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Water Resources Sustainability and Safe Yield in West Virginia Water Resources Sustainability and Safe Yield in West Virginia Prepared for West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection Prepared by Heidi L.N. Moltz James B. Palmer Karin R. Bencala Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin 51 Monroe Street, Suite PE-08 Rockville, MD 20850 March 2013 ICPRB Report No. ICPRB-13-3 This report is available online at www.PotomacRiver.org. Cover Photo Image obtained from http://desktopwallpaperz.com. Disclaimer The opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and should not be construed as representing the opinions or policies of the United States government or the signatories or Commissioners to the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin. ii Table of Contents Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................................... iii List of Figures .......................................................................................................................................... iii List of Appendices ................................................................................................................................... iii Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................................... iv Units of Measurement .............................................................................................................................. iv 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 1 2 Methodology ......................................................................................................................................... 2 2.1 Calculate Availability ................................................................................................................... 2 2.1.1 Groundwater ......................................................................................................................... 2 2.1.1.1 Baseflow Method .............................................................................................................. 3 2.1.1.2 Recharge Method .............................................................................................................. 3 2.1.2 Surface Water ........................................................................................................................ 4 2.2 Decide on Acceptable Impact to the Water Resources ................................................................. 4 2.3 Calculate Withdrawals .................................................................................................................. 6 2.4 Compare Safe Yield to Withdrawals to Determine Sustainability ................................................ 6 3 Discussion ............................................................................................................................................. 7 4 References ............................................................................................................................................. 7 List of Figures Figure 1. Example of baseflow separation using PART software ............................................................... 3 List of Appendices Appendix A. USGS gages in West Virginia; Recharge estimates (in/yr) at select gages iii Abbreviations ASCE American Society of Civil Engineers DRBC Delaware River Basin Commission GIS Geographic Information Systems ICPRB Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin NLCD National Land Cover Dataset NASS National Agricultural Statistics Service NWIS National Water Information System PA Pennsylvania PA DEP Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection SRBC Susquehanna River Basin Commission SY Safe Yield U.S. United States USDA United States Department of Agriculture USGS United States Geological Survey WV West Virginia DEP West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection YAT Pennsylvania Yield Analysis Tool Units of Measurement in/yr Inches per year Mgal/y Million gallons per year iv 1 Introduction Sustainably managing West Virginia’s water resources is critical to ensuring the availability of dependable water supplies now and into the future. With water use rates on the rise due to factors such as population increases, the pressures to develop this finite resource will continue. But what does sustainability mean and how can one determine the amount of water that can be used sustainably? There are numerous definitions of sustainability. For example, four definitions are listed here: "Sustainable water resource systems are those designed and managed to fully contribute to the objectives of society, now and in the future, while maintaining their ecological, environmental, and hydrological integrity'' (ASCE 1998). “Development and use of groundwater in a manner that can be maintained for an indefinite time without causing unacceptable environmental, economic, or social consequences” (Alley et al. 1999). “The groundwater extraction regime, measured over a specified planning timeframe, that allows acceptable levels of stress and protects dependent economic, social, and environmental values” (Australian Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population, and Communities 2004). “Withdrawals from the underground waters of the basin shall be limited to the maximum draft of all withdrawals from a groundwater basin, aquifer, or aquifer system that can be sustained without rendering supplies unreliable, causing long-term progressive lowering of groundwater levels, water quality degradation, permanent loss of storage capacity, or substantial impact on low flows of perennial streams” (DRBC 1999). Water resources sustainability can be determined for a particular withdrawal or on a watershed basis. In both cases, sustainability includes consideration of 1) the amount of water available, 2) the acceptable impact to those waters, and 3) the amount of current and/or projected future withdrawals (Eq. 1 through Eq. 3). The first step in Safe Yield – The maximum determining sustainability is to calculate safe yield based on the amount sustainable withdrawal that of available water and the fraction of that water that can be withdrawn can be made continuously given the accepted level of risk. Determining the level of risk is a social from a water source. decision, rather than a discrete scientific value, because the impacts often occur along a gradient of degradation with no clearly defined thresholds. Safe yield is a key component to understanding the limitations of a watershed’s resources (calculated as either Eq. 1 or Eq. 2). SY = A*F (Eq. 1)1 Where SY = safe yield, A = measure of total available water, F = the fraction of the available water that can be withdrawn given the accepted level of risk. 1 This equation was modified from Smith et al. (2010). 1 SY = Mn (Eq. 2) Where Mn = one of many possible statistical metrics calculated as a function of total available water that describes a hydrologic condition of acceptable impact (e.g. 7Q102 and the 1-in-25 year average annual baseflow3). The safe yield is then compared to the volume of withdrawals to determine whether the water resources are being used sustainably (Eq. 3). if SY > W, then SU (Eq. 3) Where SY = safe yield, W = withdrawals, SU = sustainable use of the water resources. This approach to determining water resources sustainability can be used in both surface- and ground-water systems, an important consideration since water withdrawals in West Virginia draw upon both. The average annual reported withdrawal from groundwater was 36,517 Mgal/y across the state between 2003 and 2011. These withdrawals were made at 423 locations. In comparison, surface water withdrawals are generally larger and come from fewer locations (1,415,593 Mgal/y at 329 locations4). This document details methodologies for determining sustainability using Eq. 1 through Eq. 3 in both surface- and ground-water systems. The most appropriate methodology for a particular evaluation depends on the available data and the acceptable level of risk. 2 Methodology Evaluating water uses to determine sustainability utilizing Eq. 1 through Eq. 3 can be broken into a series of steps, numbered here by the subsection in which they are discussed: 2.1. Availability is calculated. 2.2. The acceptable impacts to water resources are determined. 2.3. Withdrawals are calculated. 2.4. The above components are compared to determine if additional sources of water or management efforts are needed. Each of these steps is discussed in more detail in this section. 2.1 Calculate Availability The first step to determining whether the current or proposed use of a water resource is sustainable is to calculate how much water is available. The method used to calculate the amount of available surface- and/or ground-waters depends on the nature of the system and the source of the withdrawals. Methods for calculating availability for surface- and ground- water systems are described in this section. 2.1.1 Groundwater Two approaches to calculating groundwater availability for safe yield determinations are baseflow and recharge estimations. 2 7Q10 is the seven day low flow statistically expected to occur once in every ten years. 3 The 1-in-25 year annual baseflow is the lowest annual average baseflow estimated to occur once every 25 years. 4 This number represents the reported surface water withdrawals
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