the sunshine state’s underground freshwater reserves are being drained at an alarming rate, threatening the drinking water of millions, and severely damaging the complex ecosystem of the water cycle.

state and local governments already are working on solutions, but experts are calling for firmer action.

“if we just keep going the way we are going now, we are likely to be in trouble in the not too distant future,” said todd crowl, a professor at florida international university in the department of biology and director of the southeast environmental research center.

“the supply is finite, but the access to it is not finite. it’s limitless,” said robert glennon, regents’ professor and professor of law and public policy at the university of arizona. glennon studies water policy around the world and believes that florida is part of a greater water crisis in the u.s.  

“we americans are spoiled. we wake up in the morning, and we turn on the faucet and out comes as much as we want, for less than we pay for cell phone service or cable television,” glennon said. “most of our fellow citizens, when they think of water, if they think of it at all, they think of it as the air, infinite and inexhaustible, when for all practical purposes it is quite exhaustible, so we take it for granted.”

the associate director of the florida springs institute, heather obara, said, “we have a lot of overpumping of our aquifer, meaning that the demand for water in florida is really high, and we are using more water faster than our aquifer can replenish itself.

“we have a lot of water usage here in florida, such as large scale agricultural usage, as well as urban residential usages that are depleting the aquifer at a rapid rate,” she said.

this depletion of groundwater is a problem throughout the state, with both southern and northern florida experiencing shortages and environmental effects, according to the florida department of environmental protection. many of florida’s biodiverse ecosystems are dependent on freshwater to be clean of pollutants and at a certain water level to function.

the florida dep’s most recent water management assessment states that without new planning efforts, “existing sources of water will not adequately meet the reasonable-beneficial needs for the next 20 years.”

springs are a visible health indicator

in north florida, the natural springs are one of the best indicators of the health of the aquifers, obara said. the freshwater flows up from the underground aquifers into these springs through cracks in the limestone.

the florida springs institute, which studies north florida’s aquifers, has documented a significant drop of freshwater flowing into springs. according to a study they conducted in 2018, average spring flows in florida have declined by an estimated 32% from 1950 to 2010.

another consequence of low flow in springs is that nitrogen is polluting the ecosystem. according to obara, runoff inundated with nitrogen and phosphorus from agriculture and septic tanks is entering the water system, which shifts the balance of the whole ecosystem. nitrogen is fuel for plant growth, and when there is an overabundance of nitrogen in the springs, there are massive algae blooms. obara explains that without a strong flow, the springs cannot flush the algae out of the system, which ends up killing food sources for animals and disrupting the food chain.

“we thought we could just use and use that water, and now we’re dealing with the reality,” obara said.

the everglades is just as vital to the water cycle

unfortunately, the water crisis is not limited to north florida. statewide population growth has caused more and more land to be claimed for residential use. and local governments continue to authorize the drilling of new wells — and to expand development into swamps, despite the wetlands acting as a filter for water entering the aquifer.

like the springs in north florida, the everglades — a unesco world heritage site and a designated international biosphere reserve — is an integral part of south florida’s water cycle. the everglades plays a vital role in the delicate equilibrium required to maintain the aquifers by keeping a pressure counterbalance against saltwater pushing its way into the aquifer, said crowl, the florida international university professor. as the water drains out of the aquifer and the everglades, saltwater begins to intrude into freshwater reserves.

“it’s just a simple pressure problem,” crowl said. but the problem is only worsened by rising sea levels, which are increasing the pressure, he said. crowl studies the salinity of underground well water, sampling more than 100 wells throughout south florida.

crowl was not ready to make any predictions without continued monitoring in the future, but he did say “we are getting higher and higher concentrations in more and more of our wells where we measure saltwater intrusion. watching the rate that’s happening is a little bit scary.”

the government has a plan, but…

the florida department of environmental protection is one of the multiple statewide government agencies that are studying the problem and collaborating with local governments to address the crisis.

in a report published in 2017, the dep projected that between 2015 and 2035, the population in florida will grow by 27%, to 25.2 million, and that public demand for water will increase by 23%.

the dep has formulated a plan to address the increasing dependence on the aquifer. in the same 2017 study, they proposed 747 projects around the state to conserve water, costing $3.7 billion. the majority of the projects either use water reclamation or call for treatment of brackish groundwater.

but these projects seem to only treat the crisis, rather than address the underlying problem. obara and crowl both believe the most crucial step to addressing the crisis and eventually reverse it, is to commit to conserving the natural aquifer.

with one hand, florida’s state and local governments seem committed to fixing the problem, but with the other hand, they continue to take actions that seemingly contradict that first commitment. the miami-dade county commission recently approved the construction of american dream miami, a massive megamall, larger than the mall of america in minnesota. american dream will have 2,000 hotel rooms, an indoor ski slope, an ice-climbing wall, and a water park with a “submarine lake.” the project is now working to secure environmental and water permits for the 174-acre site, which is a previously developed area adjacent to the everglades.

“there really hasn’t been a good emphasis on conservation in florida,” obara said. “we need a shift in the mentality here in florida that we haven’t had before. we have always looked at the environment as a resource rather than something that not only benefits our health for our environment to be healthy, but it also benefits our state’s economy.”

“the point is if we don’t get the everglades restored pretty quickly to have freshwater to push back saltwater, we are going to be in a world of hurt,” crowl said.

so what can be done?

glennon suggests using economics and policy as a possible solution. he believes if the government increases the price of water, the natural economic response will be to conserve the resource. “it is a matter of supply and demand,” he said.

glennon still believes that access to water should be a human right, and suggests that 12-to-15 gallons per person, per day should be subsidized, avoiding penalizing those who cannot afford the price increase. glennon also calls for reform within agriculture, proposing that farms need to change their methods.

“i think the farmers developed their farms at a time when water was plentiful, and they’re doing what they’ve always done, using water the same way,” glennon said.

florida’s water problem is complicated and challenging to fix, but the outlook is still positive. according to crowl, it is possible to reverse saltwater intrusion, the health of the everglades can be restored, and the aquifer can be allowed to refill. for florida, there is still time to reverse the crisis.

“i am optimistic. is there a crisis? you bet there is. but can we do something about it? yes, and what we want to do is act before the crisis turns into a catastrophe,” glennon said. 

in fact, water conveyance — the transportation of water — is one of the largest energy consumers, accounting for about 8% of the entire country’s energy usage. and it turns out that we are conveying a lot more water than we need.

according to mark kovscek, founder and ceo of conservation labs, most of the infrastructure supporting water transportation is more than 50 years old, and faulty.

“most of our infrastructure was built in 1970 or earlier and needs to be replaced or repaired,” he said. “that cost in the next 10 plus years will be about 4.7 trillion dollars.”

water leaks generally account for about 15% of your monthly water bill. kovscek’s newest product, h2know, helps find those leaks to fix them. h2know is a smart water meter that connects to an app on your mobile device and saves you about $250 annually in water bills.

how h2know works

you can install h2know in less than 10 minutes to your own main pipeline, where the device takes live readings, thousands of measurements per second, of the pipe’s water flow.

every water-using device: washing machines, faucets, toilets, and even leaks, have a unique water signature, meaning that the rate of water flowing through the main pipeline changes according to which device is being used, and through advanced data analytics and machine learning algorithms, these measurements are converted into useful information for homeowners. this data will tell you exactly which device is using water and when, and also identify leaks as they happen. the real-time response is important, according to kovscek, because otherwise homeowners tend to ignore problems like these.

the example kovscek gives is of a homeowner with a leaky toilet. the homeowner notices a leak from the toilet’s connecting pipe after a few days, but puts a container under it and decides to take care of it later. after three consecutive months of a water bill $30 higher than usual, she finally calls a plumber. by that time she already has lost $90, plus the cost of the plumber.

an h2know device would have notified the homeowner as soon as the leak started and also offered her the contact information for a local plumber, and diy instructions on how to stop the leak.

h2know encourages the behavior of taking care of problems as they happen, resulting in less water loss and money down the drain.

according to kovscek, the app “casually reminds folks that there is this broader issue that’s out there of conservation.”

the app part of h2know aims to “gamify conservation,” kovscek says. it aims to compare a homeowner’s water usage to an average, or to a household with a same number of people living in it. this makes it a competition to conserve water. in other words, it provides incentive for people to begin changing their water use habits. the app also provides suggestions for ways to cut back on water usage.

kovscek’s conservation labs recently won one of the eureka parks climate change innovator awards at the consumer electronics show in las vegas — the first year they’ve given this environmental award — for its h2know, and the company has an indiegogo campaign running in order to bring their product to market.

h2know market projections 

according to kovscek, hexa research estimates the smart water meter market space to be about $2 billion. his own estimations came in at about $1.5 billion, although this market analysis was made before the smart water meter existed at all. kovscek explains that this projection is driven primarily by four factors:

the first is homeowners’ adoption of connected smart home devices. markets and markets estimates the smart-home industry will be worth $137.91 billion by 2023.

the second factor is increasing water rates. circle of blue estimates that in the past five years, water rates have increased by 40% in 30 major u.s. cities. kovscek says that his own bill is projected to rise 17% in the next year. these rising rates are due to old infrastructure being used to transport water, an estimated $4.7 trillion job for repairs and replacements that citizens are seeing in the form of rising water rates and taxes.

the third market-driving factor is climate change. citizens in california were mandated to reduce their water consumption by 20% during the most recent drought, a feat determined by habit and identifying leaks, both things which h2know addresses. similarly, extreme weather events and temperatures cause pipes to freeze and unfreeze at unprecedented rates, causing decaying pipes and water damage.

the fourth factor is the increasing public awareness of sustainability and environmental issues. people want to buy the most sustainable product and are becoming more conscious of consumer responsibility and dollar voting. all of these factors are driving a $2 billion product market, fit for h2know.

what sets h2know apart from its competitors is its lower price point — and its potential for investment returns for the homeowner. the appliance and app cost less than $100, and could save the homeowner as much as $250 a year. kovscek also estimates his product has a shelf life of 10-plus years, so customers don’t have to spend money replacing or repairing the device on a routine basis.

kovscek said h2know is able to operate at such an affordable price due to the research and care that the team at conservation labs put into it. kovscek himself has an impressive background in data analytics, with a degree in mathematics from carnegie mellon university, and having worked for a long time solving big problems using advanced mathematic techniques. he is a numbers guy at heart, and sees what he does as “fun exercises in data science” that he is passionate and excited about, rather than as work.

with his expertise, conservation labs has invested the time and money into machine learning in order to sift through the messy and complicated data that their low cost sensor produces. kovscek said this is different from other products on the market that use expensive sensors, which need to be installed by a plumber, and are invasive to the water infrastructure design. while some of these other products are fitted with an application that is capable of directly turning off the water supply as soon as a leak is detected, these technologies are entering the market at about $500. products at this price might save water, but probably won’t save much money. 

the future of water conservation

in the future, kovscek hopes to produce a product that works in tandem with h2know and will directly turn off the water supply when a leak is detected. he hopes to customize one of these products that already is on the market to work compatibly with h2know and provide homeowners with this additional feature.

while the primary focus of conservation labs right now is on homeowners, and shipping out the first 1,000 h2know devices by the end of the year, kovscek sees the possibility of bringing h2know to commercial spaces in the future.

there is a “need and market with commercial places too,” he says, but “it is hard to scale with wi-fi being the primary communication protocol.” it would be hard to have a wi-fi network responsible for reaching the area included within a city’s limits, not to mention the problems associated with wi-fi security, passwords, and privacy protection.

in order to bring h2know to universities, towns, and cities, they would need to use a different communication platform. however, it is doable, and would help to identify leaks and trouble spots in city infrastructures that need replacement, ultimately saving tax dollars and increasing water rates.

conservation labs is still looking for partners with similar values with whom they can go to market, and is looking forward to having many of those conversations this year.

— sophie martin, ilana creinin and danielle baglivo

specialized agricultural techniques may not be enough to keep the food coming, according to william nordhaus’s climate casino.

it’s not just my sunday trips that will change, though – based on the national climate assessment, everyone in the northeast region of the country should be wary of increasing temperatures, precipitation and sea level rise. the evidence is growing larger as our time to act is shrinking. we’re on the path to finding out what climate change means for us the hard way.

this is one risk we should not be willing to take. even if there was a way to maintain my favorite broccoli and cauliflower supply at the market, getting the food to town poses another significant problem.

the predicted 71% increase in heavy precipitation will permanently flood the bronx river parkway. major traffic on other routes will become the norm as families struggle to clock in on time for work and have a tedious experience even grabbing a good burger in the next town over.  

the bronx river parkway has its name for a reason. water originally filled the route before we came along with cement and a tractor, and all signs are pointing toward water filling it again. all solutions are costly, but with no place for another parkway, elevating the roads might be the only viable option unless people want to start kayaking around the county.

frequently traveling by water is one thing – drinking it is another. the quality of water is also greatly at risk.

sea level rise will increase salt-water intrusion into the hudson river. the hudson river runs into the state’s water supply, meaning drinking water quality is guaranteed to diminish. costco will prosper due to the increase in water bottle sales. everyone else will pay the price.

eastchester is in the same position as the rest of the globe. the best solution is prevention. we cannot save our crops once we go beyond the point of no return and there is no conceivable way to drain inches of water from the ocean.  between increasing temperatures, precipitation and sea levels, the earth is slowly consuming our habitat. nature is supposed to be an ally of mankind, but we are slowly turning the environment into an undefeatable adversary.

new yorkers need to adopt favorable climate practices before they are forced to adapt to an unfavorable climate.  

many experts say fracking is dangerous and can lead to poisonous and radioactive material entering groundwater, but that many of the concerns with fracking can be allayed if it’s done right. but, what exactly is the “right” way? wireless automation group (wag) of broken arrow, oklahoma has an answer, at least when it comes to the production and completion phase of fracking, where the real danger to communities and environment lies.

much of the threat to our soil and water comes after water has been collected and must be transported. with multiple holes created in rock layers, and so much water to collect from different outlets, it is easy for this runoff to go back into the ground. any potential spillage from water in the tanks, or while it is being transported or pumped, can have disastrous effects on local ecosystems and even, allegedly, drinking water, which has created much of the environmentalist opposition to fracking. wag’s automation technology corrects the potential for these on-site and transportation errors that can create environmental danger.

it’s not just in stabilizing and safeguarding the production and completion of fracking where wag is making a difference. wag president mark patton maintains that while the united states has the potential to surpass saudi arabia in barrels of oil produced, outdated and expensive monitoring systems in the u.s. not only create greater potential for fracking-related mishaps and other environmental dangers, but also hamper remote oil and gas operations. the disadvantage the u.s. faces is not with its oil supply, but how we are going about extracting that supply. all too often, critical information is received too late to prevent costly disruptions, accidents, and environmental spills.

“through remote, automated monitoring of all phases of median and marginal oil and gas production, we can simultaneously boost production and reduce risks,” patton maintains. “labor costs are minimized, while pumpjack failures and other incidents are immediately addressed.”

rapid transmission of data is especially critical in limiting environmental impacts, which can easily prove a thousand times more costly than the production interruptions themselves. in the wake of something like a pumpjack failure or blowout, even mere minutes can mean untold costs in labor safety, environmental safety and production.

“environmental issues have assumed top priority in the minds of government agencies,” patton adds. “near real-time monitoring of flow allocation, well performance, and detection of potential environmental threats is no longer an option – it has become a crucial component of competitive survival.”

wag seeks to change the face of oil and gas production through automated, remote monitoring of all phases of the processes, as illustrated in the diagram below:

wag is moving oil production to an almost completely remote process, not only moving the human element out of danger, but adding greater efficiency and safety to u.s. oil production as well. real-time operational status can be viewed on a mobile device via an internet connection. oil production monitoring can include the amount of oil taken, the start/stop of the salt water injector pump, the high/low level of the saltwater tank, and high and low pressure of the salt water line from the injector pump.

this cloud-based, near real-time monitoring allows operators to manage their remote operations efficiently, to increase production while reducing risks. for example, operators can manage the variable speed drives that reduce the demand charge when the pumps start up, thereby reducing energy costs. the operator has the ability to start and stop all operations at each site in near real-time, from a safe, remote location.

operators can detect a problem within minutes, and implement an action plan to fix it before it has a major effect on production, and possibly impact the environment. for example, pumpjack failures can usually be fixed immediately. operators can send notices of operational alarms to cell phones, as well as video monitoring and motion sensor alerts. depending on the seriousness of the event, field teams can communicate with management for advice, support, or approval. operations that are more extensive can include a central monitoring station.

all wag wireless platforms provide both production and security management. they can support traditional scada (supervisory control and data acquisition) implementations, as well as voice, data and video applications. they can keep a log of system status for epa (u.s. environmental protection agency) reports and oil company settlements.

in short, wag’s near real-time wireless delivery is key to assisting operators make timely decisions that, before now, had been severely limited by dated and irrelevant information. wag solutions result in greater safety and security by not only optimizing production, but also by enabling the early prevention of expensive, lengthy and potentially risky repairs. thus, timely delivery of accurate information on all phases of production systems results in higher profits optimal production and minimal incidents.

wag service offerings include design engineering, construction, installation and maintenance, database records and storage, and instrumentation and electrical solutions. they also provide systems integration of plcs, scada, wireless networking, and custom control panel fabrication. clients include municipal, public works, private, and industrial applications.
for more information, please go to http://www.wireless-automation-group.com

these rain water systems could even be used for emerging markets even as drinking water. rain water is easily purified, if necessary, using reverse osmosis or simple solar distillation.

i am working with the premier air to water manufacturer to produce the first commercially viable solar-powered machine to simply pull the water directly from thin air. this concept uses the same technology that your a/c systems use to remove heat from air. the byproduct of this process (removing heat from air) is water–why not put this yield to use in areas where water is difficult to come by?

photo credit to izik.