Memphis needs to safeguard its abundant water

In 1961, Stax released the William Bell hit single “You Don’t Miss Your Water,” whose lyrics were about lost love. The song title was a play on the adage you never miss the water till the well runs dry.

In other words, people are not grateful for what they have until they lose it.

Some people fear that one day generations from now, Memphis and Shelby County could experience their well — the precious Memphis Sand aquifer — running dry if local industries continue to be allowed to pump millions of gallons a day from the aquifer.

No one is pushing a panic button, but we concur with those who feel there should be more oversight and structure over how the industrial wells are approved and how the water is used.

The pure fresh water the Memphis Sand provides has been a quality-of-life plus for area residents and a major economic development selling point.

This kind of water resource has been described as the “new oil” in some of economic development circles.

A story in The Commercial Appeal Monday revealed that the eight largest industrial users of Memphis Sand water were drawing a total of more than 1 million gallons of water a day from private wells during several months of 2014, the most recent year for which Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation figures are available.

That water is used in making everything from beer to gasoline.

Plans by the Tennessee Valley Authority to pump an average of 3.5 million gallons of aquifer water daily from five wells to obtain cooling water for its $975 million Allen Combined Cycle Plant under construction in the Frank C. Pidgeon Industrial Park in Southwest Memphis have brought new attention to the health of the aquifer.

Monday’s story pointed out that water experts believe the TVA pumping will not come close to exhausting the Memphis Sand. The aquifer, which is 400-900 feet thick in many areas, holds an estimated 57 trillion gallons of water beneath Shelby County — enough to last nearly 700 years at current usage levels, even without natural “recharge” or replenishment taken into consideration.

Still, the fact that the TVA and other industries can tap into the aquifer with only a bare minimum of regulatory oversight regarding the approval of the wells and how they are used seems like misguided lack of concern for such a valuable resource.

Shelby County officials, including the Mayor Mark Luttrell and some county commissioners, agreed, saying that at a minimum, more monitoring and communication is needed on major projects affecting the aquifer.

That includes an update of the county’s well ordinance and a long overdue review of the county’s Groundwater Quality Control Board.

Right now, wells and aquifer water are the purview of the Health Department, which issues permits for wells, and the Groundwater Quality Control Board that, among other things, is tasked with securing, protecting and preserving the quality and quantity of water lying beneath the county’s boundaries.

But under current practices, the groundwater board generally reviews well permits only on appeal when the department has rejected applications.

Despite concerns about the TVA wells, Health Department officials said Wednesday they are granting the TVA permits to drill the final two wells it sought to obtain cooling water for its new power generating plant. Under current codes, department officials said they did not have a basis to deny the permits.

Decades ago, Arkansas scientists expressed concerns that the state’s underground water tables were being compromised because of the enormous amounts of water being used for agriculture, especially rice farming.

Studies now show that the state’s underground water levels are dropping as the use of groundwater and surface water for irrigation and public water supplies have increased.

The Memphis Sand aquifer remains healthy, despite increased demand for its pure fresh water. That does not mean, however, that steps should not be taken now to make sure it stays that way.