Written by: Madhuri Dinakar, Changcheng Pu and Joseph Wasswa

Although fresh water is a critical resource to our society, there is growing scarcity for this resource globally. The distribution of fresh water on the Earth’s surface is extremely uneven, where some parts of the world have abundant freshwater resources while others struggle to meet demand. Water supply crises are exacerbated by human population growth and climate change, which render the traditional freshwater supplies inadequate to sustain the growing water demand. In the United States, the west coast in particular faces increasing water stress, which causes overdraft of groundwater and stream depletion. Even if the drought were to stop today, it would take decades to restore the depleted ground water resources in the western US. Currently, the water supplies of Southern California and some other western states largely rely on imports from the Northern California and the Colorado River. These sources are under threat due to increasing population, particularly in Southern California, and growing conflicts between agricultural and urban demand for water, which have escalated as the water supply has dried up. Thus, this necessitates the exploration of alternative to combat the growing concern of water shortage. Suggested solutions to this challenge are composed of a combination of multiple strategies: desalination, storm water capture, water recycling and reuse, and water banking. These newly developed “taps” of urban water will help dry cities in California and other places achieve “more sustainable and resilient water futures.”

On April 6th, Dr. Richard Luthy, the Silas H. Palmer Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Stanford University, was invited to Syracuse University to give a seminar titled “Urban Water Supply Reinvention for Dry Cities.” Dr. Luthy started with a portfolio approach to the water stress, and how diversified techniques are applied to manage risks in water systems. Wastewater reuse, including potable and non-potable reuse, is one of the most appealing options to augment the water supply. For non-potable water reuse, one major challenge is the vast upfront cost, primarily for separate pipelines. The implementation of decentralized water reclaimation facilities is a potential solution for this issue. For potable water reuse, regulators and researchers are working together to promulgate regulations to address the health concerned caused by micropollutants. In addition, the public perception and acceptability of recycled water is still an impediment for successful implementation of water recycling and reuse. In California, the other technical approach is storm water capture, with a co-benefit of protecting beaches since it reduces the amount of pollutants carried to the beaches by urban runoff. Storm water collected by green Infrastructure and dry wells can be used to recharge groundwater. Dr. Luthy also stressed that all water problems and solutions are regional. Since the climate conditions, existing infrastructure and political environment vary largely from region to region, there is no universal solution to all local water problems. However, a comparison of water supply strategies implemented by driest parts of the region like Israel and California shows that the water stress in California can be reduced if the suggested options are successfully evaluated and implemented.

Story written by: Quercus Florence Hamlin

In a world of ever-growing data and computing resources, understanding and practicing good data management strategies is critical to scientists of all kinds.

In order facilitate better data management strategies, EMPOWER students attended a workshop led by CUAHSI’s (The Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science) Liza Brazil. Brazil walked through basics of the data life cycle and metadata before doing an in-depth demo of CUAHSI’s data repository Hydroshare (https://www.hydroshare.org/). Hydroshare allows hydrologists to store and discover hydrologic data of all kinds by browsing spatially and with tags. Faculty in the workshop were excited to find Hydroshare had a private lab data sharing feature and created groups for their labs on the spot.

After Brazil’s presentations, EMPOWER students hosted a discussion on data management. During the discussion, students analyzed their current data life cycle and, after being presented with new ideas, were asked how they would improve it. Many ideas were considered, like working as labs to establish group practices and expectations but perhaps the best advice? Just do it. We have the tools: we just need to commit to data management.

Story written by:  J.R. Slosson, Lucie Worthen & Yige Yang

In June 2018, twelve EMPOWER students will journey to Rwanda on a field course to learn about the history, culture, and potential energy source of Lake Kivu. In preparation for that field course, EMPOWER trainees are preparing by expanding their knowledge of the lake geology during weekly seminar.

Located on the border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lake Kivu is one of the African Great Lakes located in the Great Rift Valley. Students discussed the journal article Stratigraphic framework and lake level history of Lake Kivu, East African Rift by Douglas Wood and Christopher Scholz. The paper shed light on the geologic history of the lake, from ancient deltas to former lake drainage patterns. The students conversed about volcanic eruptions of prehistoric times and analyzed the history told by the sediment core data. Dr. Scholz will be one of the professors leading the EMPOWER field course in Rwanda.  While Lake Kivu is most well-known for the methane produced from the sediment floor as a potential source of power for the Rwandan people, Scholz shed light on alternative reasons for studying the rift valley. The African Rift valley is very similar to an ancient series of rifts here in the eastern United States called the Eastern North America Rift Basins. By studying an active rift valley in Africa, we can better understand how the ancient rift basins of the northeast U.S. were formed, says Scholz. The EMPOWER trainees will continue their education on Lake Kivu next week with background on the lake chemistry related to methane.

Story written by Alaina Hickey, Nick Zaremba, Amanda Campbell & Laura Markley

On Friday, February 23^rd, a group of EMPOWER students led the class with a presentation focused on the existence of methane in Lake Kivu, continuing the discussion from the previous week on the geological processes controlling the evolution of the East African Rift and the Great Lakes of East Africa. These two student-led discussions were scheduled in preparation for an EMPOWER field course that will be taking place in Rwanda on Lake Kivu in June, which will focus on scientific issues pertaining to water resources and power generation in Rwanda. Professor Chris Junium, an organic geochemist who will also be taking part in the field course, joined the class to aid in the discussion on the complex biogeochemical cycling and water column chemistry of the lake.

Lake Kivu is located on the border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and lies along the Albertine Rift, the western branch of the East African Rift. The lake is estimated to hold 55 billion cubic meters of methane (CH₄) and 250 billion cubic meters of carbon dioxide (CO₂), which are normally held at depth due to the meromictic nature of the lake. Similar to Fayetteville Green Lake, Lake Kivu is a meromictic lake, meaning that it does not normally overturn. As long as the lake remains stratified, the methane and carbon dioxide are not released into the atmosphere. However, this lake, along with Cameroonian Lake Nyos and Lake Monoun, are three known lakes to undergo limnic eruptions. Limnic eruptions are rare natural disaster cases in which the dissolved carbon dioxide and/or methane suddenly erupts from deep waters, forming a gas cloud that can asphyxiate wildlife and human populations. Methane and carbon dioxide are expected to reach saturated levels in the lake in 50 to 200 years, which poses a gas eruption threat to more than two million people along its shores. Geologic evidence in the lake’s surrounding region suggests mass biological extinctions have taken place in the past, which is likely a result of outgassing events triggered by volcanic activity. Understanding the unique geologic and chemical processes of the lake can help predict and potentially prevent future catastrophes.

In an effort to control methane levels in the lake, ContourGlobal, a U.S. based energy company, acquired project funding in 2011 to begin a large-scale methane extraction project, which now operates through a local Rwandan entity named KivuWatt. This is the only gas/water extraction project operating in the world. An offshore platform is used to extract, separate, and clean the gasses obtained from the deep waters before pumping purified methane through an underwater pipeline to on-shore gas engines. This exploitation of methane aids in maintaining permanent stratification of the lake and mitigating the dangers associated with the release of CH₄ and CO₂. The project also provides an environment-friendly and sustainable source of power generation, decreases the country’s use of diesel to generate electricity, and reduces electricity costs for consumers. Extraction is reported as cost-effective and relatively simple – once the gas-rich water is pumped to the surface, the dissolved gases (CO₂ and CH₄) begin to bubble out as water pressure decreases. This project is expected to increase Rwanda’s energy generation capability by as much as 20 times, and will enable Rwanda to sell electricity to neighboring African countries.