Parump Valley News 5-12-10

Lamm outlines water studies at workshop

FURNACE CREEK, Calif. -- Donna Lamm, executive director of the Amargosa Conservancy in Shoshone, told delegates at the annual Devil's Hole workshop last week her organization recently became partners with federal and state agencies to monitor water levels on the southern part of the Amargosa River drainage.

Death Valley National Park and the Nature Conservancy, along with others, shared their expertise in sinking 11 piezometers in the Amargosa Desert -- devices that estimate water levels by measuring water pressure.

"It all started because of the niterwort, which is this really cool, little plant," Lamm said. "We were monitoring in the area of critical habitat for the niterwort."

The endangered plant may be found at a limited altitude of 2,100 to 2,160 feet in open, alkaline, salt-encrusted areas, Lamm said. The plant grows in the Carson Slough, the discharge area from Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge into the Amargosa River, she said.

The monitoring wells were only five to eight feet deep, which was sufficient since the water level was unusually high, only two to four feet below the surface, Lamm said.

More wells have now been sunk in Death Valley Junction, and in Borax Springs and Palm Springs near Tecopa, she said. The data is collected and submitted to the U.S. Geological Survey where it is entered into its national water information system.

"We are in hopes that by doing this program, it will instigate even more scientific study. I know a lot has been done," Lamm said.

One of the lessons they learned so far? Don't go to read a submerged piezometer after heavy rain, as was attempted in February.

"It's really difficult to watch your footing when it's this wet and your feet weigh 30 pounds. It's really difficult to walk through Carson Slough," Lamm said.

The conservancy plans to install four more piezometers in the southern Amargosa region in the Tecopa and Shoshone area, she said.

"There are concerns about the future, the solar installations being one of them, the continued agricultural pumping in the Amargosa Valley and any future development that may take place there," Lamm said. "I think it's very important that more study be done and we get a grip on what the water users can sustain in terms of development."

Lamm joked she was about the only presenter at the workshop who didn't have graphs of the Devil's Hole water levels and talked in plain English.

Pahrump groundwater

Donald Reeves, from the Desert Research Institute, gave an update on the Pahrump groundwater evaluation study.

Reeves said Pahrump is projected to have a population of 50,000 residents by 2050. But it was in 1968, he said, during the peak of agricultural pumping, that Pahrump had the highest groundwater withdrawals, 48,000 acre feet per year.

Pahrump water usage has consistently exceeded the recharge level since the 1950s, he said. Reeves said his study will use estimates of 26,000 acre feet of recharge per year into the Pahrump aquifer. An acre foot is 326,000 gallons or enough for two families for a year.

"We're seeing a change in pumpage from 1980 on, from primarily irrigation use to an increase in domestic water use," Reeves said.

The groundwater flows into Pahrump Valley from the Spring Mountains in the northeast down to the Nopah Range in the southwest.

The study calibrates water measurements from 84 wells to calculate the draw-down in the Pahrump aquifer, but Reeves said only six wells provide long-term data.