How does the Edwards Aquifer work & why is it so heavily regulated? KSAT Explains

hey there everybody welcome to a new live stream for a new episode of case that explains i'm myra arthur thanks for being here tonight we are talking about the aquifer this evening you know what the aquifer it is it is the primary source of drinking water for millions of us in south texas so you know it's important but there was a lot more to the aquifer than just how much water it holds take a look if you're a regular ksat 12 viewer you've seen this before the aquifer is down today 4 tenths of a foot to 662.5 we need some rain the aquifer yesterday did not change i want to show you the aquifer level it's actually up a tenth of a foot over the past 24 hours which is good but still below the monthly average our weather authority team reporting on the edwards aquifer water levels the aquifer is the primary source of drinking water for millions of us around south central texas and the hill country so you know it's important but maybe you still have some questions in this week's episode of ksat explains we're diving into how the edwards aquifer works why it's so heavily regulated and we're learning about the conservation efforts that are in place to protect the aquifer and the creatures who call it home asap explains caitlyn explains ksat explains ksat explains on-demand in-depth perspective perspective on stories we bring you in our newscast throughout the day [Music] we're looking into concerns over voting safety during a pandemic and the battle over mail-in voting a look at how the protests and demonstrations have played out in our city and an examination of what it means to be black in san antonio an issue that you have likely felt the effects of rising property taxes the roots of tejano run deep in south texas we examine the cultural impact the music has had in san antonio the plains team partnered with meteorologist justin horne and sarah spivey for an episode all about the aquifer [Music] thanks for joining us for this episode of ksat explains i'm myra arthur it goes without saying that we all need water and here in san antonio the edwards aquifer is the primary source the health of the aquifer is essential its history is interesting and its future affects all of us for this episode of case that explains we have partnered with two members of our team who report on the aquifer every day case at 12 meteorologist sarah spivey and justin horn they'll take it from here when we report on the edwards aquifer number every day on ksat it's usually just for a small portion of our larger forecast we really don't get the time to explain the full story of the aquifer and why it's important but as myra said it is important and we hope by the end of this episode you'll have a better understanding of the city's primary source of drinking water so let's start there how does the aquifer work the edwards aquifer encompasses an area from edwards and kinney counties as far east as travis and hayes counties the three important sections of the aquifer are the contributing zone which can be found in the hill country the recharge zone and the artesian zone here is a cross section of what that aquifer system looks like here we have the contributing zone which is sometimes called the drainage zone or the drainage area and that's in the hill country next the recharge zone which features areas of the aquifer which are fractured and visible on land think of areas like government canyon where you can see the holy limestone features everywhere and then finally the artesian zone where san antonio lies the artesian zone is where we harvest the water through wells and here's how the aquifer works rain falls on the contributing zone in the hill country and the water runs downhill into the recharge zone where it enters the porous aquifer system similarly rain can just simply fall on the recharge zone and immediately enter the aquifer then the pressure from all that water builds up in the artesian zone and we harvest it by digging wells the aquifer level you see here on ksat is the level of the aquifer at one of those wells j17 and justin's going to talk about that a little bit later in our show to get a better understanding of just how old the aquifer is and how it was formed sarah headed out to government canyon so the history about why we have the edwards aquifer is really fascinating it goes back millions and millions and millions of years ago one thing that's really cool is that texas used to be under shallow seas and where we live in san antonio used to be a beach you can see evidence of this in the form of dinosaur tracks a government canyon believed to have been formed either on a muddy beach or on a sandy beach what's really cool again millions of years ago texas had shallow seas and in these shallow seas what you ended up having was all these mollusks and clams and those kind of creatures now they died and their remains over millions of years have formed the karst which is what the edwards aquifer is made out of karst is a porous limestone again these are the fossilized remains of all of those mollusks and shelly creatures and the porous uh nature of this is what houses the water so what we're standing on is essentially a giant sponge that soaks up all that water that we can utilize so pretty interesting and neat history that you can see about the edwards aquifer thanks sarah that's a great explanation and speaking of cars let's dig a little deeper quite literally and go underground there are thousands of caves across the texas hill country and they're there for one reason the aquifer one of the best ways to understand the aquifer is to actually go down into one of the thousands of caves we have here in the texas hill country it's a good way to understand what the aquifer used to look like and what its structure looks like today we're going to go down into a cave here in comal county in wego it's a nice drop into this limestone cave and the lights go on what we see below is the equivalent of a history book of the aquifer so at one time the cave was filled with water and then as the water levels have dropped over geologic time it's left these relics of conduits that move water through the system and that and so these caves allow us to look at the fabric of the limestone to understand better how groundwater moves through the system how it goes from recharge to discharge this cave was probably formed millions of years ago which brings us back to that word again karst karst is a landscape that's characterized by sinkholes and sinking streams and caves and springs it's also a what we call a subsurface system that allows us to transport and move water through it very quickly very rapidly just how rapidly schindle says diet testing provides that answer the groundwater velocity is certainly in the recharge zone of the edwards aquifer has been measured as great as a mile per day mind-blowing and one of the reasons these caves are important to those who study the aquifer this wall is a good example of what the aquifer would look like you see it's kind of sponge like it has pockets here and the water is in these pockets and then moves through the system eventually discharged at the springs fascinating to think about and while most of these caves are just relics a few provide actual access to the aquifer there are some of the caves in bear county and and medina uvalde and hayes county where we've been able to go through the cave down deep enough that we've actually seen the edwards aquifer itself and then so there's a handful of those uh it's something that cavers are always looking for but it goes to show you how fragile it is fragile and occasionally claustrophobic like many caves in the texas hill country this has a lot of tight spaces that we've been crawling through but it opens up into bigger rooms like this one past that we come face to face with this guy a tri-color bat an example of the cave's fragile ecosystem this is a small species though compared to what likely called this gave home in the past there's been some excavation in the cave by scientists and they've found that there are a teeth of animals like mammoth a baby mammoth that were probably killed and drug in here because they probably didn't come in through the entrance after all these cave systems are vast and can in some cases go on for miles not something we'll be testing today we make our way out leaving with more knowledge than we arrived with and that goes for all of us the formation of the edwards aquifer is interesting but during the aquifer's more recent years things have gotten a little complicated attorneys got involved and as justin reports that's when the edwards aquifer authority was born the beginning really stems from a lot of conflict and controversy over what to do about this resource in the 80s the edwards aquifer had long been san antonio's main water source it was a rapidly growing city and there was concern was there enough water for everyone then much like now there really weren't that many laws uh dictating how you could limit groundwater withdrawals and so the sierra club in the 90s brought an endangered species suit which was sort of the only way to to go about something like that you'll hear more about those endangered species later but the ruling was clear the judge said look texas you either need to manage this or the federal government and me are going to come in and do it and so the legislature has never moved so fast i don't think in the history of texas because we got the edwards aquifer authority now more than 20 years later the edwards aquifer authority is by all accounts a success story santoni is so much bigger than it was and we are the aquifers doing just fine because we've adjusted we've sort of met the needs of nature and we have a three-pronged mission three words manage enhance and protect the edwards aquifer system and over its history the eaa has evolved from mostly managing the aquifer to shifting more towards protecting and enhancing it which brings us to where we are now a city where uniquely the local news reports the aquifer every day i do not know of any other place that reports aquifer levels on a daily basis like san antonio does and i think that's a testament to how important it's become and and how how the conservation ethic has taken root in san antonio so where do we go from here i think that the biggest challenge moving forward is is making sure as i've said that the aquifer remains sustainable in the face of a number of different potential risks or threats climate change being one but beyond that uh what what is happening in the region as a result of the development as growth continues for example into the into the hill country which is the catchment area for the for the edwards that's where all the water comes from that gets into the edwards what does that mean for us in terms of recharge to the edwards is there a threat that the quality of water that gets into the aquifer is going to be compromised at some point so the eaa's mission is not over and one way the eaa and the city of san antonio are helping to preserve the aquifer for future generations is through conservation easements and the city has bought more than 160 thousand acres of these conservation easements over the aquifer it's funded by a sales tax and a conservation easement just means that the landowner agrees not to develop the land so things like pollution don't feed into the aquifer so what that easement does is it has certain conditions attached to it that prevents development of that property and it keeps it in this natural state as you see here to allow the processes of recharge to happen on the property to be uninterrupted by impervious cover and other types of development meantime here are some quick facts about the eaa the eaa is funded by user permit fees not taxes the largest permit holder san antonio water system while the eaa acts like a groundwater district it is unique in its mission separating it from other traditional groundwater districts will the aquifer ever run dry not in our lifetime and water levels are not managed simply to keep it from running dry it's managed to keep levels high enough to keep the springs flowing for endangered species which brings us to the next part of our story we've now explained that the edwards aquifer authority was created to protect species that rely on the aquifer and to keep the federal government out of managing it so in an effort to avoid further federal involvement the eaa put together a habitat conservation plan we discovered that means turning over every rock to make sure the numbers of a certain species stay at a healthy level snorkeling and one foot of water may not qualify for extreme water sports but these two biologists have an important gig turning over one stone at a time they are counting combat salamanders inside land of park in new braunfels these flags representing where they've spotted one of the elusive creatures this is like a bigger one here that says slight bit lucistic meaning they come in all colors and sizes and thankfully seem to be thriving in their one and only habitat they were able to find quite a few comal salamanders here today it is petitioned to be on the threatened or endangered list but isn't quite yet it's in the same family though as a texas blind salamander which is endangered in total there are 11 endangered threatened or petitioned to be endangered species that call the springs of the edwards aquifer home we have you know three salamanders on there we have fish species we have texas wild rice as a plant and we have a number of macroinvertebrates and it is these tiny critters that spur the development of the eaa and also why we are here today all born out of a lawsuit the sierra club was the original lawsuit in 1991. this is where the fed stepped in citing the endangered species act a lot of people are very surprised that the limits that we have on watering are actually for these tiny little critters in 2013 the culmination was an agreement among the five permatease the city of san marcos the city of san antonio through saws the city of new braunfels texas state university and the edwards aquifer authority those five entities agreed to start the habitat conservation plan the habitat conservation plan it's not something we hear about much but it plays a vital role in how the aquifer is managed and so this covers us to do certain activities that are aimed at protecting these threatened and endangered species which brings us back to today's count data like this is turned over to the federal government to satisfy any concerns and the species just because they're listed in danger does not mean that they're near extinction that just means that they need to be protected and preserved their habitat preserved which is evident in and around land of park the kamau springs are flowing steadily and if you're curious the water stays a comfortable and consistent 72 degrees the come out system has 425 springs that feed into it like this one back here it's kind of coming out of a sidewall water feeds down into the system and it's the perfect environment for those threatened and endangered species numbers look healthy the system is is the habitat is is strong the species have been preserved well and they're continuing to thrive in record numbers a sign that the entire aquifer system is alive and well a stat that the ea believes we should all care about justin just showed us one type of salamander that lives in the aquifer but if there were a poster child for conservation efforts within the edwards aquifer it's the texas wine salamander and at the san marcos aquatic resources center that's where these little guys are kept alive and a backup population is kept there too in case something happens to them the idea here is that if something catastrophic were to happen to the aquifer itself or the rivers that are fed like the san marcos river we would have a population on station here they feed and breed the texas blind salamanders to keep the population going but what makes the strange-looking salamander a perfect mascot for the edwards aquifer it's got these long gangly arms it's got these really like fluffy gills and it's completely white and so it's kind of a very intriguing species and i think people gravitate to its cuteness and it's slightly creepiness but also it's mystery and researchers here are trying to solve the mystery of the texas blind salamander as details about the species population can be a bit fuzzy we do some tagging where we when we catch animals we'll release some that we catch and we'll tag them so that if we catch them again we'll know it and that'll can give us an idea of how many are down there in reality it's difficult to know just how large or small the texas blind salamander population is simply because the tiny creatures live deep underground and underwater in a vast pitch-black aquifer which spans thousands of miles but we do know that they're likely a top predator within the aquifer system eating worms and small shrimp pretty much anything that swims in front of them they'll probably try to eat it so not too discerning of an animal but whenever there's not much down there you have to take what you can get researchers have also determined that the salamanders can live for quite a long time because of their slow metabolism we have some here that have lived about 10 to 15 years so far that i wouldn't be surprised if they live 20 years or more so if the texas blind salamander lives for quite some time and their population is healthy why do we need to regulate the water level and quality of the aquifer if they have very permeable skin like if if there's some contaminant in the water it's going to permeate them too right unlike us who have like very tough skin who are very resistant to environmental changes they're super sensitive to environmental changes and in the end the scientists here believe conservation efforts are not just about the species we protect through conservation we're actually preserving these ecosystems and these these river systems for our use too for the saving of a species that some people may view as pitting man versus critter or animal we don't we don't view it that way necessarily because i think that's just a short-sighted view of the of the issue at the end of the day whether it's benefiting the species that live in those habitats or not it's benefiting all of us because we're ensuring that the resource remains viable for us every day you hear us giving you the aquifer report but where does that number come from what does it mean and how is it recorded to answer these questions justin takes us out to the ever important j17 well on ksap we always show you this graphic of the aquifer it shows the level but what does that number mean and where is it measured it's actually measured in this building here behind me this is the j17 well it's located at jbsa fort sam houston and they invited us inside today so let's go take a look inside a typical monthly checkup of the well is underway by charles crawford right there so bring it up j-17 is literally just a small hole in the floor surrounded by a box drilled in 1914 to supply water to fort st houston and while it's safe to say not much has changed this is pretty much the same method that they've been using to measure water wells for about 100 years this isn't just any well this is definitely one of the most important wells in texas it definitely at as far as statewide goes has one of the longest histories that's for sure continuous observation started at the well in 1932 by the u.s geological survey the amount of historic data is what makes j17 so valuable to aquifer scientists along with its location over the aquifer of course nowadays we get an electronic aquifer measurement every 15 minutes so you can kind of see down hole there uh so this well actually goes down to 874 feet it's cased to about 600 feet uh cased and then it's just kind of open whole rock uh from there on uh and so the instrumentation is the three instruments the pressure transducers that are down there are underwater they have to be underwater to get the pressure and then that that information like i said is transmitted up through these cables over here to our data logger from there some conversions take place so that number can be easily compared it measures uh in pressure and then we do a conversion that then uh converts that pressure to what we call the feet above the instrument feet of water that sits above the instrument so once we've got that we know where the instrument is set at uh then that's when we get the the depth to water so what we measure is the uh from the top of this land surface to the top of the water is is depth water and feet uh and then we do another little bit of calculation and we get the water elevation uh which is the elevation of that water level in reference to uh feet above mean seed level trust me it's a lot of math but in the end that's where we get this number that you see every day and it's that one little number that sets water policy for millions and determines things like when you can water your yard it is vital making this well in this small white building a crucial piece of the system and a literal direct conduit to the aquifer we know that was a lot of information but we hope you have a better understanding of the edwards aquifer and the next time you see us reporting its levels on ksat 12 now you'll know why those numbers are important a huge thank you to justin horn and sarah spivey for diving in to explain all we need to know about the edwards aquifer thanks for joining us for this episode of ksat explains i'm myra arthur we'll see you next time [Music] isn't that fascinating so that is the much much bigger story behind those few seconds when you hear the members of our weather team talking about the aquifer levels every single day thanks so much for joining us for this episode before we let you go we want to know what do you want us to tackle next go to our website ksat.com explains you can see a prompt there on the right hand side of the screen type in a question you have a topic you're wondering about whether it's something you've seen around town you want us to do some more explaining about or maybe something you have seen us cover in one of our newscasts a topic that's making headlines around town that you want to know more about as well ksat.com explains thanks for being here tonight have a great one and we'll see you next time you

Channel: KSAT 12

Views: 9,516

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Id: Ti4zlvf9GTw

Length: 23min 47sec (1427 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 09 2022