"Groundwater Level Monitoring of the Aquifer in the Neighborhood of Palisades Schools, Nockamixon," Bridgeton-Nockamixon-Tinicum Groundwater Management Committee, December 29, 2008

Report: Water crisis looming for Upper Bucks

by Amanda Cregan, Intelligencer/Courier Times, January 4, 2009

Palisades School District and its neighbors are facing catastrophe if groundwater levels continue to drop, a groundwater use report has found.

A water crisis is looming for school buildings in the Palisades School District and surrounding neighborhoods.

New data reveal the aquifer that supplies area wells is seriously stressed, and any significant drought could permanently dry up the high school, middle school, an elementary school and homeowners' water wells in Nockamixon.

"It isn't a fact of 'oh, you can just stop lawn watering.' This is something major," said retired engineer Robert Stanfield, who volunteers as vice chairman of the Bridgeton-Nockamixon-Tinicum Groundwater Management Committee.

The advisory group released a yearlong study last week that showed a 25-foot drop in the water level from 2007 to 2008, a normal rainfall season.

By installing well data loggers, the group monitored Palisades High School in Springfield Township and a number of wells on neighboring homeowners' properties.

The engineers also interviewed area homeowners, researched the aquifer's geology and compared their analysis to previous data collected by state loggers already installed at the three schools.

Communities in Upper Bucks are not connected to public water and sewer service; each home and business must rely on private wells and septic systems.

A declining water source has been a silent epidemic across the Upper Bucks community for years, says Stanfield. The report marks the first long-term study of groundwater problems in the area, and it's long overdue, he says.

"Because we haven't been monitoring the groundwater we haven't realized that there is a problem," said Stanfield, who holds a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked for 35 years in the petroleum industry.

"We've been driving through Death Valley in a car without a gas gauge," he said. "Suddenly, we have a gas gauge and oops! Oh dear, what the heck has been happening?"

Signs of a stressed water table have been on the uptick.

"The only symptom in the past is that we've had to have wells re-drilled," said Stanfield, who has been following the groundwater problem for nearly 10 years.

More and more residents across Nockamixon are seeing their private wells dry up and have had to drill deeper for water.

Neither Palisades School District nor neighboring homes are alone responsible for the major drawdown.

The study points to one of the area's largest water consumers: Bucks County Nursery, located across from Palisades High School.

The nursery may be using from about 5,000 to 20,000 gallons of water daily, according to the report's estimates. The nursery's water levels were not officially metered, but Stanfield suspects it could be as high as 25,000 gallons daily. The school district uses about 8,000 gallons daily.

Bucks County Nursery owner Jerry Tumolo, however, denies he uses as much water as the report estimates and says water problems became evident in 1991 after Palisades Middle School was built and home construction increased in the township.

"Bucks County Nursery continues with its ongoing plan to grow plants and work with the USDA soil conservation agency to conserve our resources," said Tumolo, whose family has operated the business since 1981. "Yes, plants need water to grow, but give back much more to the environment then they take, and are a very important part of climate control."

Just around the corner from Palisades, most of the 32 homes in the Mountain View subdivision have had to have their wells re-drilled some 35 years after the neighborhood was completed.

Along nearby Buck Road, homeowners' wells are starting to run dry.

Anthony Buck has lived in his home 39 years and had to deepen his well from 223 feet to 413 feet in November.

The 82-year-old, who lives about 500 feet from the nursery, has lived in the Nockamixon area his entire life and says he can't figure out why he and his neighbors' wells suddenly need to be re-drilled.

"These are not isolated incidents without a common causative factor," according to the groundwater monitoring report. "It needs to be pointed out that the strategy of drilling deeper wells is not a viable solution for finding new water. It only causes a race to see who can have the deepest well, so they can be the last to run out of water."

In fact, drilling deeper has been the only solution for Nockamixon homeowners.

The average well depth in Pennsylvania is 180 feet, but most Nockamixon wells are now double that.

Palisades High School's well stretches down 500 feet, and the pump is positioned at 280 feet.

As the township faces groundwater problems, it also must deal with Hanson Aggregates quarry production, which is located a couple miles from the high school and is seeking to expand.

Stanfield notes the quarry sits above a different aquifer and is being monitored as part of a separate report.

Township officials are also facing the possibility of hundreds of natural gas wells on private properties in Nockamixon.

The drilling process requires massive amounts of water to extract gas from the rock thousands of feet below the surface, and needs careful disposal of the water-chemical mix afterward.

The groundwater report is an advisory document, and it's up to Nockamixon Township officials to decide if they want to take action, said Stanfield.

But for engineer Stanfield and the groundwater committee, action must be taken now to deal with a declining water supply.

Without any intervention there could be serious consequences for the residents and the school district in the event of a drought, according to the report.

"All you need is one dry year, and you have catastrophe on your hands," said Stanfield.

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