Water And The Army

The United States Army is currently caught in a water paradox.  Too much water in the Mississippi River Basin, where they are making extremely difficult decisions on what and whom to protect in light of historic flooding.  The other issue is not enough water and critical concerns regarding water sustainability at Army installations.  The Army is a  mirror of the U.S.at large - - the potential for extreme weather and growth producing versions of both too much and not enough.

The "not enough" part is the subject of a report completed in September 2009 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Construction Engineering Research Laboratory.  The report, Army Installation Water Sustainability Assessment: An Evaluation of Vulnerability to Water Supply, provides the first comprehensive review of long-term water sustainability at installations.  A key concern for the U.S. Army is the vulnerability of military installations to critical resource issues.  Water issues of concern - - including adequate supply, increased cost of production per unit volume, quality, habitat degradation and salinity issues - - already impact installations and military operations in many locations with the nation and across the globe.  The Army determined there was a need to assess the vulnerability of regions and installations to water supply and to develop strategies to ameliorate any adverse effects on the triple bottom line.

The report outlines several water trends and problems of concern to the Army that were outlined in the May-June 2011 issue of The Military Engineer (Army Technology Supports Water Sustainability Studies).  This is water sustainability in the context of national security - - nearly 100 of the 411 installations included in the study lie within watersheds that are highly vulnerable to water crisis situations.  These are:

• Rising demand for water - - Water tables are falling on every continent.  Aquifer depletion is a global problem that has emerged in the last half century.
• Water quality - - Water quality is inextricably connected to water supply.  Even small changes in quality can render water supplies useless for their intended use or hazardous to life.
• Climate change - - The latest evaluations of global climate models anticipate the following changes in the water cycle: changes in precipitation patterns and intensity, changes in the incidence of drought, widespread melting of snow and ice, increasing atmospheric water vapor, increasing evaporation, increasing water temperatures, reductions in lake and river ice, and changes in soil moisture and runoff.
• Land use trends - - Sprawling growth paves over increasing areas of wetlands and forests, which contributes to the depletion of water supplies.
• Groundwater depletion - - High depletion rates are vulnerable to long-run changes in hydrology and future lack of supply.  Much of the U.S. West, Southwest, central plains, and Florida are highly vulnerable.
• The energy/water nexus - - Energy can account for 60 to 80 percent of water transportation and treatment costs and 14 percent of total water utility costs.  Much of water resources development took place during the 20th century in an era of both low energy and water prices.

Recurring water issues in the report included the following:

• It is important to consider the connection between water and energy when planning infrastructure projects.  Technologies that save energy also can have a greater "water footprint," and should be selected with consideration for their impact on water demand.
• Water is priced not according to its value as a precious resource, but to recover costs incurred to extract and pump.  The cost of water is a lagging indicator and does not reflect scarcity.  Only when water becomes difficult to obtain will the limited supply be reflected in increased price.  Higher costs can be expected can be expected when water must be transported long distances or obtained from non-potable  sources.
• The historic water rights systems were developed during times of water abundance.  Current water allocation law is leaving insufficient supplies for users experiencing water scarcity due to drought, population growth, or declining aquifers.
• Metering of individual buildings on Army installation is rare, through this is changing due to requirements of federal water conservation laws.  One installation that installed water meters for reimbursable customers found consumption double the amount of the previous billing.  Another installation conducted mock billing of housing residents and saw a 5% drop in consumption as a result.
• Mandated water reduction targets apply to the entire installation, although overall demand is impacted by both reimbursable utility customers and by system losses that could be the responsibility of utility contractor operators.
• The projected impacts of global climate change are expected to affect water availability.  Anticipated changes in the water cycle include differences in precipitation patterns and intensity, increased drought and flood cycles, widespread melting of ice and snow affecting surface runoff, and the requirement for greater amounts of water due to temperature rise.