Comparison of Groundwater Rights in the United States: Lessons for Texas

The history of water rights in the United States is rich with conflicts over critical water sources. Surface water and groundwater rights are seen as primarily State responsibilities, except for federal lands and selected interstate and international waters. Establishment of a single set of legal rules and regulations for groundwater is a great challenge because of site-specific conditions. Different rules and regulations based on different doctrines may be adopted by any State. The degree of attention given to the particular groundwater resource depends upon its availability and value in various economic applications. In Texas, management of groundwater resources is a complex challenge. Today, groundwater reliability is facing serious limitations in many areas because of excessive pumping and water quality issues. Critics have long argued over the Rule of Capture. Some wish to maintain the rule of capture to protect individual groundwater ownership, and to give groundwater districts greater power and funding to manage pumping. Others prefer state ownership and control of groundwater similar to surface water, but any removal of individual ownership rights would likely lead to long judicial challenges. As the Texas legislature and various water-related agencies consider possible updates to the State’s approach to groundwater rights, it is worthwhile to consider the varied approaches taken in other states. This presentation provides a summary of the different groundwater rights systems in the fifty states, with special attention to lessons learned in complex situations. Recommendations for alternative future steps in Texas are discussed

The Impact of Spatial Variation in Land Use Patterns and Aquifer Characteristics on the Agricultural Cost of Groundwater Conservation for the Southern Ogallala Aquifer

Land Economics/Use,

Estimating Aquifer Recharge Through Playas of the Great Plains Using Temperature Probes

The magnitude of recharge through playa wetlands in the High Plains has often been debated, but rarely been quantified. The ephemeral nature of water in playas makes it difficult and expensive to observe filling and drying/draining cycles. Rugged, inexpensive tools are needed to demonstrate the movement of water below the root zone to observe the recharge process. We performed proof of concept studies to evaluate temperature as an indicator of infiltration/recharge in playa wetlands. Single-ringed infiltrometers with embedded Cu-constantan thermocouples and Hobo probes at 50, 100, 150 and 200 cm soil depths were used to quantify infiltration and temperature. At two playas, one infiltrometer was installed in a clay-textured soil, characteristic of the playa bottom, and one was installed in coarse-textured soil adjacent to the playa. At least 70 cm of water was pumped into each infiltrometer at approximately 1.3 cm/min. After filling the infiltrometers, we assumed differences in soil temperature over time were caused by infiltrating water. Temperature differences were noted at the 50- and 100-cm depths at all locations after infiltration. The magnitude of temperature change was positively correlated with the rate of infiltration, and negatively correlated with soil depth. These temperature readings were in good agreement with the time and quantity of water added. This new field application has great potential to improve the understanding and predicting the life of the High Plains aquifer

The Impact of Spatial Heterogeneity in Land Use Practices and Aquifer Characteristics on Groundwater Conservation Policy Cost

Estimation of agricultural policy cost for a given level of groundwater conservation requires the establishment of an accurate baseline condition. This is especially critical when the benefits and cost of any conservation program are generally estimated relative to the status quo policy or baseline situation. An inaccurate baseline estimate will lead to poor estimates of potential water conservation savings and agricultural policy cost. Over a 60-year planning horizon per acre net present value is as much as 29.8% higher for a study area when aquifer characteristics are assumed to be homogenous and set to their average area value than when the heterogeneity in aquifer characteristics is explicitly modeled.Aquifer Modeling, Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Next-to-leading order QCD corrections to Higgs boson production in association with a photon via weak-boson fusion at the LHC

Higgs boson production in association with a hard central photon and two forward tagging jets is expected to provide valuable information on Higgs boson couplings in a range where it is difficult to disentangle weak-boson fusion processes from large QCD backgrounds. We present next-to-leading order QCD corrections to Higgs production in association with a photon via weak-boson fusion at a hadron collider in the form of a flexible parton-level Monte Carlo program. The QCD corrections to integrated cross sections are found to be small for experimentally relevant selection cuts, while the shape of kinematic distributions can be distorted by up to 20% in some regions of phase space. Residual scale uncertainties at next-to-leading order are at the few-percent level.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl

Association of genetic vatiation within UBL5 with phenotypes of metabolic syndrome

The BEACON gene was initially identified using the differential display polymerase chain reaction on hypothalamic mRNA samples collected from lean and obese Psammomys obesus, a polygenic animal model of obesity. Hypothalamic BEACON gene expression was positively correlated with percentage of body fat, and intracerebroventricular infusion of the Beacon protein resulted in a dose-dependent increase in food intake and body weight. The human homolog of BEACON, UBL5, is located on chromosome 19p in a region previously linked to quantitative traits related to obesity. Our previous studies showed a statistically significant association between UBL5 sequence variation and several obesity- and diabetes-related quantitative physiological measures in Asian Indian and Micronesian cohorts. Here we undertake a replication study in a Mexican American cohort where the original linkage signal was first detected. We exhaustively resequenced the complete gene plus the putative promoter region for genetic variation in 55 individuals and identified five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), one of which was novel. These SNPs were genotyped in a Mexican American cohort of 900 individuals from 40 families. Using a quantitative trait linkage disequilibrium test, we found significant associations between UBL5 genetic variants and waist-to-hip ratio (p = 0.027), and the circulating concentrations of insulin (p = 0.018) and total cholesterol (p = 0.023) in fasted individuals. These data are consistent with our earlier published studies and further support a functional role for the UBL5 gene in influencing physiological traits that underpin the development of metabolic syndrome.<br /

Book Review: The Future of the Southern Plains

The Future of the Southern Plains is a collection of essays that evolved from a symposium at Southern Methodist University in 2001. The text\u27s primary concern is how oil and water depletion in the Southern Plains affects the economy, autonomy, and aesthetics of the region

Widespread Presence of Naturally Occurring Perchlorate in High Plains of Texas and New Mexico

Perchlorate (ClO4-) occurrence in groundwater has previously been linked to industrial releases and the historic use of Chilean nitrate fertilizers. However, recently a number of occurrences have been identified for which there is no obvious anthropogenic source. Groundwater from an area of 155 000 km2 in 56 counties in northwest Texas and eastern New Mexico is impacted by the presence of ClO4-. Concentrations were generally low (\u3c4 ppb), although some areas are impacted by concentrations up to 200 ppb. ClO4- distribution is not related to well type (public water system, domestic, agricultural, or water-table monitoring) or aquifer (Ogallala, Edward Trinity High Plains, Edwards Trinity Plateau, Seymour, or Cenozoic). Results from vertically nested wells strongly indicate a surface source. The source of ClO4- appears to most likely be atmospheric deposition. Evidence supporting this hypothesis primarily relates to the presence of ClO4- in tritium-free older water, the lack of relation between land use and concentration distribution, the inability of potential anthropogenic sources to account for the estimated mass of ClO4-, and the positive relationship between conserved anions (e.g., IO3-, Cl-, SO4-2) and ClO4-. The ClO4- distribution appears to be mainly related to evaporative concentration and unsaturated transport. This process has led to higher ClO4- and other ion concentrations in groundwater where the water table is relatively shallow, and in areas with lower saturated thickness. Irrigation may have accelerated this process in some areas by increasing the transport of accumulated salts and by increasing the number of evaporative cycles. Results from this study highlight the potential for ClO4- to impact groundwater in arid and semiarid areas through long-term atmospheric deposition

Metastable State of Water and Performance of Osmotically Driven Membrane Processes

Semipermeable membranes play critical roles in many natural and engineering systems. The osmotic pressure is found experimentally much less effective than the hydraulic pressure to drive water through the membrane, which is commonly attributed to the internal concentration polarization (ICP) in the porous layer of the membrane. In this study, it has been shown that a necessary condition for the osmotic pressure to be effective is water continuity across the entire membrane thickness under negative pressure, i.e., the water inside the membrane remains in a metastable state. However, the metastable state of water cannot be maintained indefinitely, and cavitation will undoubtedly occur in the osmotically driven processes. Collapse of the water metastable state was suggested for the first time to be a more important and fundamental reason for the low water fluxes in the osmotically driven membrane processes

Estimation of interstitial velocity using a direct drive high resolution passive profiler

The fate and transport of groundwater contaminants depends partially on groundwater velocity, which can vary appreciably in highly stratified aquifers. A high resolution passive profiler (HRPP) was developed to evaluate groundwater velocity, contaminant concentrations, and microbial community structure at ~ 20 cm vertical depth resolution in shallow heterogeneous aquifers. The objective of this study was to use mass transfer of bromide (Br‐), a conservative tracer released from cells in the HRPP, to estimate interstitial velocity. Laboratory experiments were conducted to empirically relate velocity and the mass transfer coefficient of Br‐ based on the relative loss of Br‐ from HRPP cells. Laboratory‐scale HRPPs were deployed in flow boxes containing saturated soils with differing porosities, and the mass transfer coefficient of Br‐ was measured at multiple interstitial velocities (0 to 100 cm/day). A 2D quasi‐steady‐state model was used to relate velocity to mass transfer of Br‐ for a range of soil porosities (0.2‐0.5). The laboratory data indicate that the mass transfer coefficient of Br‐, which was directly – but non‐linearly – related to velocity, can be determined with a single 3‐week deployment of the HRPP. The mass transfer coefficient was relatively unaffected by sampler orientation, length of deployment time, or porosity. The model closely simulated the experimental results. The data suggest that the HRPP will be applicable for estimating groundwater velocity ranging from 1 to 100 cm/day in the field at a minimum depth resolution of 10 cm, depending on sampler design