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| Hometown Water Project | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� Brenham is a small rural city in Texas that is 60 minutes away from the big city of Houston and about 90 minutes away from the state capital, Austin.� The people who live there have a couple of ways to access to drinking water.� One is by using private wells to excess water from Evangeline Aquifer, and the other one is accessing water from Lake Somerville. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lake Somerville | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� The main source for drinking water in the city limits of Brenham is Lake Somerville, which is an example of surface water.� Lake Somerville is a man-made reservoir that was constructed in the mid-1960s (1963-1967) (interview).�� Its main function in the 1960s was to control floods.�� In 1913, a flood nearly destroyed Somerville, Texas.� After that flood, the lake flooded the city every year between 1924-1944.� It is believed that the man-made lake will be functional until 2067.� It has several functions, flood control, water conservation (especially in the summers of 1996 and 1998), wildlife, and recreation (interview). Brenham pumps up to about 5 to 6 million gallons per day of water from Lake Somerville and it travels to the Brenham Water Treatment Plant (Water Quality). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The drainage basin is the total area that contributes water to a stream or any type of surface water (Skiner and Porter G-3). The drainage basin for Lake Somerville is the Yegua Creek Watershed, which is west of Brenham (Interview). The Yegua Creek Watershed covers an area of approximately 1,000 square miles. The primary land uses of the watershed are agriculture, livestock, and oil production (Water Quality). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� Lake Somerville has faced and continues to face several potential threats to this drinking water source.�� | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1) Oil and gas wells-both active ones and plugged and abandoned ones.� These are monitored in the area of the lake (Interview).� Presently, there are 166 wells have or being drilled in this area.� This is a hazard to the wildlife habitat and water quality (Somerville Internet). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2)Salt and algae blue-green algae is the greatest threat and as a result it is studied and monitored consistently.� It can kill small fish in great quantities, which is also monitored. The problem of algae blooms occurs when there is an increase of water temperature and the presence of sunlight.� | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3) Falba is a type of soil (sandy soil)-that is natural in the area and when there is flooding and the lake's water level is too high, which causes erosion on the shoreline.� The water looks gray when this happens. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4) Illegal tank truck dumping of pollutants can cause what the ranger calls "spot pollution".� This is not a problem but it is a potential threat. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| One past threat of pollution: In 1982, an oil well in the Austin Chalk formation blew out that is 3000 feet away from the lake and right on a stream that drained into the lake.� The threat of pollution from brine, salt water and drilling mud was an environmental problem� Emergency dikes were built and tank trucks were lined up along the shore of the lake and the pollution was pumped into them.� The work continued for months. Then, a pipeline was built which stayed active until the early 90s.� | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Some interesting facts about Lake Somerville: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1)The algae blooms area problem is one way-water is greener and Brenham must treat it more with chlorine but in another way-it is great for the wildlife (food chain). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 Sewage from the recreational parks that are around the lake is not dumped into Lake Somerville.� It goes to bacteria ponds; where it is treated, then it can be used as fertilizer. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3) At the beginning of Jan. 1999, Lake Somerville had too much water and� pumped 196 million gallons per second into the Brazos River (Interview). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The price per unit volume of water charged to a house in Brenham is about 0.005 cents. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Evangeline Aquifer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| � ��������� My family has three private wells, which each are about 190 feet deep, access� drinking water from the Evangeline Aquifer, which is a source of groundwater.�� The name of the aquifer is the Evangeline Aquifer, which is part of the Gulf Coast Aquifer system.� The Gulf Coast aquifer forms a wide area ?along the Gulf of Mexico and it provides water to 54 Texan counties(Gulf Coast). The aquifers that are under southeast part of Washington County are the Jasper and Evangeline aquifers (Easpey 11-21). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Evangeline Aquifer is a sequence of alternating clays and sands above the Burkeville aquicide.� It includes the upper part of the Fleming Formation of Miocene age and the alternating sands and clays of the Goliad Sand of Pliocene age.� It has a maximum thickness of approximately 550 feet (Report 162 17). | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� It is an unconfined aquifer, which is defined as an aquifer which the upper boundary is determined by the height of the water table and not by a confining rock layer? (Dictionary 567). The Burkeville confining layer separates the Jasper from the overlying Evangeline Aquifer, which is contained within the Fleming and Goliad sands (Gulf Coast Internet).� Its recharge area is runoff from precipitation. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� Water from the Evangeline is typically a calcium bicarbonate type.� The water is characterized is as "hard water".� The pH of the water is slightly acidic (>7) and does not contain much sulfate (Report 162 35).� Like surface water, groundwater can be polluted by a variety of factors (TEC Internet).?A potential source of contamination of ground water exists in the possible movement of brines from the underlying salt-water bearing formations through improperly cased oil wells or improperly plugged oil tests (Report 162 35).� Another potential source of contamination is the infiltration of oilfield brine from disposal pits on the outcrops of the aquifers (Report 162 35).�� Another potential source of contamination is the seeping of leachate from an abandoned landfill in Brenham.� This might happen in decades to come. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ��������������� It does not matter which way a person gets fresh, unpolluted water, but people need fresh water to survive.� Consequently, the United States must be careful about trash disposal and its oil wells, gas wells, and barrels of oil that are buried in the ground.� These activities can pollute surface water and/or groundwater and threaten the existence of human life. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� Works Cited | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Art, Henry W., General editor.� The Dictionary of Ecology and Environmental Science. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ��������������� New York: Henry Holt and Company.� 1993. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "Groundwater Aquifers".� Texas Environmental Almanac.� Internet.� Available online. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� Accessed: January 23, 1998.� http://204.96.111.74/almanac/aqualitych2p7.html | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "Ground-Water Resources (2.5)".� Title unknown.� Espey, Huston Associates, Inc. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ��������������� Date unknown.� 2-8 and 2-9. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Keienburg, Bill, a ranger, was interviewed by Sally Blackie over the telephone mid-January 1999. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Skinner, Brian J. and Porter, Stephen C.� "Water on the Land: Surface Streams and | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� Groundwater".� The Blue Planet: An Introduction to Earth System Science. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1995.� 224-249. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| "Somerville, TX-Somerville Lake".� General Information.� Internet.� Available online. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| �� ����������� Accessed: January 24, 1999.� http://www.rtis.com/reg/somerville/lake.htm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas A&M University.� Lake Somerville Water Quality Study?.� Alan Plummer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� Associates, Inc. August 1998.�� | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas Water Development Board.� "Gulf Coast Aquifer".� Aquifers of Texas.� Internet. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Available online.� Accessed: January 23, 1999.� | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| http://tnris.twdb.state.tx.us/www/twdb/pdf/aquifers.html | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Texas Water Development Board.� Ground-Water Resources of Washington County, | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ����������� Texas: Report 162.� November 1972. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||