Post by L Roebuck on Jul 22, 2006 8:21:24 GMT -5
Paradise lost to contaminants
The souring of a domestic water supply on an idyllic property reflects the fragile nature of groundwater in the Ozarks.
By Mike Penprase
News-Leader
Living in paradise has a price.
That's what Sam and Julie Horner have discovered after a decade of relying on a small spring on Clear Creek for their domestic water.
The place was paradise until a few weeks ago, when Sam discovered orange material in the spring branch, along with a foul odor resembling rotten eggs. The drastic change in several of nearly 20 springs seeps on their property and a nearby wooded haven, Sam Horner said.
They had previously given up drinking spring water vetted by cartridge and ultraviolet filters, but still relied on spring water for washing and bathing.
No longer. They've had a water line costing thousands of dollars run from the edge of The Meadows water system to their home on Farm Road 97.
Along with the inconvenience, Sam Horner is upset because there appear to be no clear-cut answers to the cause of polluted water.
"That's what I fear, that we will never figure this thing out," he said. "And the spring will be permanently damaged."
RIPPLE EFFECT
In a region known for its swiss-cheese-like underground features, all of us should be concerned about health hazards posed by contaminated water, said Janet Hicks, consulting Springfield-Greene County Health Department investigator.
Tests by the department showed no signs of contamination from sewage, she said.
While the Horners' problem might be unusual, it reflects the fragile nature of groundwater quality in the Ozarks.
And there's no guarantee problems in the shallow Springfield Aquifer — like the one the Horners are dealing with — can be kept from the deeper Ozark Aquifer, which provides water to deeper wells in the region, said consulting hydrogeologist Tom Aley.
Even if springs located in the shallow Springfield Aquifer are separated by a layer of shale from the deeper Ozarks Aquifer, the flow of contaminated water from one aquifer to the other remains possible, often through old uncased wells linking the aquifers, Aley said.
"We've got to be careful we don't write off the shallow aquifer because the water that gets into the deeper aquifer comes from the shallow aquifer," he said during a recent meeting with the Greene County Commission to discuss starting a monitoring program to determine how much water high-volume wells draw from the deep aquifer.
The tendency to write off the shallow aquifer, simply because it can be easily polluted, isn't a good move, said Loring Bullard, Watershed Committee of the Ozarks executive director.
"The unfortunate thing about it is we've been trying to wean people from the shallow groundwater for possible health reasons," he said. "That's bad because we need people to get upset when springs are contaminated."
POTENTIAL CAUSES
The Horners' issue could be the result of a combination of karst topography and changes in groundwater flows caused by dry weather, Bullard said.
Lower water flows might have caused a pool of underground water with high iron levels to move and flow into the Horners' springs, he said.
"That's not beyond the realm of possibility," he said. "There's storage underground, too. It's not just a set of pipes."
The committee is concerned enough about the quality of water from area springs that it wants to expand is Spring Watchers program, which enlists volunteers to check springs and report water quality problems.
As for the Horners, the origin of problems at their springs is something of a mystery that may not be caused by human activity.
It's possible changes in underground water systems caused by continuing dry conditions are responsible for the problems at the Horners' springs, said Cynthia Brookshire, Missouri Department of Natural Resources hydrogeologist.
DNR representatives collected water samples soon after Sam Horner alerted the agency's regional office, and it took about a week for those samples to be processed to determine if there were signs of sewage pollution or the presence of chemicals, she said.
"We got right out the very next day" to collect numerous samples, she said.
Instead of contamination caused by human activity, it's possible the discoloration and foul odors were caused when changes in the groundwater promoted a rise in iron levels in the water, Brookshire said.
That, in turn, caused iron-eating bacteria to multiply so much they coated some of the stream with an orange mass, and emitted an odor when they died.
It appeared the extent of the situation didn't go far downstream, Brookshire said.
Instead, there was enough flow along Clear Creek that the bacteria levels were diluted, she said.
At least one question remains, Brookshire said: Why iron levels rose high enough to promote bacteria growth.
Determining that would require more research to determine spring recharge patterns, she said.
UNPREDICTABLE
In an area of Greene County filled with sinkholes and a proliferation of springs, that would require a determined testing effort, she said.
Although some spring recharge patterns have been determined in Greene County with dye tracing, more work needs to be done, Brookshire said.
"The general direction seems to be north northwest," she said of the flow into the Horners' springs.
"But I don't know if we can conclude any of the possible recharge areas. I'm not sure we have a definite handle on the recharge area we're talking about, either."
Meanwhile, connecting to The Meadows water supply is the best move for the Horners since they don't have a well, Hicks said.
"I was encouraging them to hook to The Meadows," she said. "As far as a reliable water supply, that probably would be cheaper than drilling a well."
Using a spring worked well for the Horners for years, but relying on shallow groundwater, whether it's a spring or well, can be unpredictable both in terms of water flow and water quality, she said.
"It's not something we can tell people they can't do, that I know of," she said of using a spring for a water supply.
"It's an individual's choice, if they want to take that chance. Putting a treatment device on worked quite well, and it had served their family quite well for 10 years."
Article: www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060711/LIFE04/607110326/1035
The souring of a domestic water supply on an idyllic property reflects the fragile nature of groundwater in the Ozarks.
By Mike Penprase
News-Leader
Living in paradise has a price.
That's what Sam and Julie Horner have discovered after a decade of relying on a small spring on Clear Creek for their domestic water.
The place was paradise until a few weeks ago, when Sam discovered orange material in the spring branch, along with a foul odor resembling rotten eggs. The drastic change in several of nearly 20 springs seeps on their property and a nearby wooded haven, Sam Horner said.
They had previously given up drinking spring water vetted by cartridge and ultraviolet filters, but still relied on spring water for washing and bathing.
No longer. They've had a water line costing thousands of dollars run from the edge of The Meadows water system to their home on Farm Road 97.
Along with the inconvenience, Sam Horner is upset because there appear to be no clear-cut answers to the cause of polluted water.
"That's what I fear, that we will never figure this thing out," he said. "And the spring will be permanently damaged."
RIPPLE EFFECT
In a region known for its swiss-cheese-like underground features, all of us should be concerned about health hazards posed by contaminated water, said Janet Hicks, consulting Springfield-Greene County Health Department investigator.
Tests by the department showed no signs of contamination from sewage, she said.
While the Horners' problem might be unusual, it reflects the fragile nature of groundwater quality in the Ozarks.
And there's no guarantee problems in the shallow Springfield Aquifer — like the one the Horners are dealing with — can be kept from the deeper Ozark Aquifer, which provides water to deeper wells in the region, said consulting hydrogeologist Tom Aley.
Even if springs located in the shallow Springfield Aquifer are separated by a layer of shale from the deeper Ozarks Aquifer, the flow of contaminated water from one aquifer to the other remains possible, often through old uncased wells linking the aquifers, Aley said.
"We've got to be careful we don't write off the shallow aquifer because the water that gets into the deeper aquifer comes from the shallow aquifer," he said during a recent meeting with the Greene County Commission to discuss starting a monitoring program to determine how much water high-volume wells draw from the deep aquifer.
The tendency to write off the shallow aquifer, simply because it can be easily polluted, isn't a good move, said Loring Bullard, Watershed Committee of the Ozarks executive director.
"The unfortunate thing about it is we've been trying to wean people from the shallow groundwater for possible health reasons," he said. "That's bad because we need people to get upset when springs are contaminated."
POTENTIAL CAUSES
The Horners' issue could be the result of a combination of karst topography and changes in groundwater flows caused by dry weather, Bullard said.
Lower water flows might have caused a pool of underground water with high iron levels to move and flow into the Horners' springs, he said.
"That's not beyond the realm of possibility," he said. "There's storage underground, too. It's not just a set of pipes."
The committee is concerned enough about the quality of water from area springs that it wants to expand is Spring Watchers program, which enlists volunteers to check springs and report water quality problems.
As for the Horners, the origin of problems at their springs is something of a mystery that may not be caused by human activity.
It's possible changes in underground water systems caused by continuing dry conditions are responsible for the problems at the Horners' springs, said Cynthia Brookshire, Missouri Department of Natural Resources hydrogeologist.
DNR representatives collected water samples soon after Sam Horner alerted the agency's regional office, and it took about a week for those samples to be processed to determine if there were signs of sewage pollution or the presence of chemicals, she said.
"We got right out the very next day" to collect numerous samples, she said.
Instead of contamination caused by human activity, it's possible the discoloration and foul odors were caused when changes in the groundwater promoted a rise in iron levels in the water, Brookshire said.
That, in turn, caused iron-eating bacteria to multiply so much they coated some of the stream with an orange mass, and emitted an odor when they died.
It appeared the extent of the situation didn't go far downstream, Brookshire said.
Instead, there was enough flow along Clear Creek that the bacteria levels were diluted, she said.
At least one question remains, Brookshire said: Why iron levels rose high enough to promote bacteria growth.
Determining that would require more research to determine spring recharge patterns, she said.
UNPREDICTABLE
In an area of Greene County filled with sinkholes and a proliferation of springs, that would require a determined testing effort, she said.
Although some spring recharge patterns have been determined in Greene County with dye tracing, more work needs to be done, Brookshire said.
"The general direction seems to be north northwest," she said of the flow into the Horners' springs.
"But I don't know if we can conclude any of the possible recharge areas. I'm not sure we have a definite handle on the recharge area we're talking about, either."
Meanwhile, connecting to The Meadows water supply is the best move for the Horners since they don't have a well, Hicks said.
"I was encouraging them to hook to The Meadows," she said. "As far as a reliable water supply, that probably would be cheaper than drilling a well."
Using a spring worked well for the Horners for years, but relying on shallow groundwater, whether it's a spring or well, can be unpredictable both in terms of water flow and water quality, she said.
"It's not something we can tell people they can't do, that I know of," she said of using a spring for a water supply.
"It's an individual's choice, if they want to take that chance. Putting a treatment device on worked quite well, and it had served their family quite well for 10 years."
Article: www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060711/LIFE04/607110326/1035