Nitrate Groundwater Pollution Around the World: Nebraska Scientists Comment on a Chinese Paper.

[NNadir]

It's unusual for a commentary on a previous paper to appear as the first article in an issue of Environmental Science and Technology. The current issue, Vol 56 Iss 5 (2022) is an exception.

Disgusting wars aside, fondness for lies notwithstanding, as human beings, we're all in this together on our stressed and perhaps dying planet, as the Nebraska scientists authoring this commentary know: Letter to Editor: Response to “Groundwater Storage Recovery Raises the Risk of Nitrate Pollution” (Chittaranjan Ray, Arindam Malakar, and Daniel D. Snow Environmental Science & Technology 2022 56 (5), 2841-2842)

It's brief, but here's some excerpts:

We at the University of Nebraska would like to respond to the viewpoint of Min et al. on pages 8–9 of Volume 56, Issue 1. (1) The article highlights the global issue of groundwater nitrate contamination. It points out the large transient storage of nitrate in the vadose zone, which is a looming threat to groundwater quality in the coming decades. In a related study, the authors mention that imported surface water from the southern part of the North China Plains for cities on the north and increased precipitation helped increase groundwater levels, though shortened the travel distance and time for nitrate to reach water table. (2) They suggest improving efficiency and reducing water and nitrogen application through water-saving technologies and agricultural management practices to alleviate the problem, and call for new technologies “that can eliminate” stored nitrate in the vadose zone. Finally, they call for international collaborations with multidisciplinary efforts to solve these issues.

The high groundwater nitrate problem is particularly severe in the northern High Plains (Ogallala) Aquifer of the United States. Elevated groundwater nitrate is prevalent in alluvial aquifers with overlying irrigated corn and soybean cropland. In Nebraska alone, groundwater nitrate now exceeds the maximum contaminant level (MCL) of 10 mg/L nitrate as nitrogen beneath more than 1 million hectares of land. (3) A (perhaps unrealistic) goal of regulatory agencies is to reverse this increasing trend of nitrate concentrations within the next five years, and potentially reduce groundwater nitrate below the MCL within the next two decades...

...In the United States, importing water from one region to another is not feasible because of prior appropriation doctrine. Thus, a decrease in nitrogen and water use can only come from better management practices and continuous technological innovations, which are already taking place through business interests outside the University. Collaboration is needed in improving producer stakeholder engagement to increase adoption of better technologies and practices, incentives that show return on investment from these practices, and better awareness of the health implications from groundwater contamination. We welcome international collaborations to help reverse the global trend of nitrate pollution.

I think the seriousness of the situation on the Ogallala aquifer is very serious matter very much on the back burner in this country. Irrespective of the attention, or rather the lack of attention, this is a very serious matter for our food supply or rather for that of future generations.

Of course, in many ways well beyond water supplies, we never stop demonstrating the contempt we feel for the future.

About 10% of sea level rise is thought to result from ground water depletion. The authors refer to the "appropriation doctrine."

I personally believe that ground water around the world can be restored, thus sequestering water, that it's feasible, if unlikely. However this would take enormous amounts of energy, clean energy. Some people consider that wind and solar are "clean energy," and that they can provide enormous amounts of industrial energy for such a purpose. They're out of their minds, and until we all, humanity from China, Nebraska and all the world beyond, get back into our minds, nothing will be done.

Have a nice weekend.

[Goonch]

1. ;-{)🖖‍

[hunter]

2. My wife and I have had some personal involvement with this issue.

https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/nitrate_project/

[NNadir]

3. California certainly has a nitrate problem.

I assume that when you say "personal involvement" it refers to your own water.

Nitrate is a pretty rough anion to remove. Often the biochemical reduction of it releases nitrous oxide, which is very, very problematic.

I recently read a very cool paper, where it is escapes my mind immediately, on an ammonium nitrate electrochemical cell where the nitrate oxidizes the ammonia, and the ammonia reduces the nitrate, the end product in both cases being nitrogen gas. (The right wing terrorist Timothy McVeigh exploited ammonium nitrate as an explosive, set off by diesel fuel; the explosive decomposition of ammonium nitrate generally yields nitrous oxide, and in fact, commercial nitrous oxide is made by the controlled decomposition of ammonium nitrate.)

Of course, having lived in Southern California as a young man, water quickly evolved into the very first environmental issue about which I thought, albeit in a very primitive way. In fact, without having lived in California, I very much doubt I would have become an environmentalist.

I traveled widely in the State over the years, first alone and then after I got married, with my wife.

It's weird, because in many ways the geography of the State, in particular its mountain ranges, makes it a place which could be an ideal place for a sensible water/energy nexus. I fantasize all the time about ways to refill Owen's Lake, restore the aquifer in the central valley, clean up the Salton Sea, perhaps even liberate the Colorado River, but regrettably the prevailing attitude there with respect to energy, and certainly to water, is quite nearly the exact opposite of what I think should be done. I left California nearly 30 years ago, but what I saw there remains in a central place in my mind.

(All this reminds me to send an email to my son suggesting that he discuss knockout drums with his Chemical Engineering friends.)

Water quality is far more exigent in California than many places in the world; but this situation isn't really good anywhere really. I know what's in my groundwater here in New Jersey, and it isn't entirely pretty. My water comes from a well.