The great irony: The planet is mostly water, which communities don’t always have when they need it, points out Lenny Konikow. The US Geological Survey (USGS) veteran has devoted more than 40 years as a research hydrogeologist to studying groundwater. His report, “Groundwater Depletion in the United States (1900–2008),” points out that the rate of groundwater depletion as a natural consequence of groundwater withdrawals has increased markedly since about 1950, with maximum rates occurring during 2000 to 2008, when the depletion rate averaged almost 25 cubic kilometers per year.
Konikow asserts that although groundwater is a regional issue, it has national and global implications: According to the United Nations, 900 million people lack access to safe drinking water. Half of the US population depends on groundwater; the other half relies on surface water. Konikow sees them both as a single resource. The National Ground Water Association points out that one-quarter of all US rainfall becomes groundwater. Groundwater is a hidden resource, Konikow says. A growing population is a driving force for increased demands on food and water supplies, and to meet those demands, management and adaptation to change will be necessary. He adds that the future calls for policies and innovative water management to address problems.
What He Does Day to Day
Konikow, a USGS Scientist Emeritus, now works as part of a team developing computer code to better simulate how groundwater flows and how contaminants move through groundwater. The project builds upon his years of work helping develop better simulation models, primarily to help refine MODFLOW, the USGS three-dimensional finite-difference groundwater model tool used as an international standard for simulating and predicting groundwater conditions and groundwater/surface water interactions. The ultimate goal: to enable watershed, stormwater, and water utility managers to use models to develop better water budgets comparing inflows with outflows. “You should be able to manage it better if you understand the resource better and predict how a resource will change over time,” he says.
However, there is a great deal of inherent uncertainty, he adds. “As good and as well-calibrated as the model is, you always have to take any predictions for the future with a grain of salt and recognize that if all of your assumptions turn out to be true, then your prediction will be pretty accurate. The problem is everything you assume about the future always does not come true.”
What Led Him Into This Line of Work
Konikow took what he found to be an interesting geology class at Hofstra University and went on to earn a B.A. in geology there, followed by an M.S. and Ph.D. from Penn State in geology. He worked for a time for a groundwater consulting company, being mentored in hydrogeology and groundwater, and developed a passion for helping government entities and companies locate wells to get a groundwater supply. After meeting a USGS scientist by chance at an Ohio conference on groundwater modeling, Konikow accepted an offer to work in the agency’s Colorado office and then its Reston, VA, office.
What He Likes Most About His Work
“It’s intellectually challenging and fun,” says Konikow. “It’s like solving a puzzle, trying to figure out how the groundwater flow system works, where the water is going, where the contaminants are going. The other key part is that you feel useful because you’re solving a societal problem, and you get a sense that someone appreciates it. If you do a good job, it’s going to benefit somebody through a better and safer water supply, or by eliminating contaminants from the water. As a scientist, you’re not necessarily in a position to solve the problem, but you’re in a position to tell people that this is serious and they better do something about it.”
Not having the time to do everything he wants is one challenge, notes Konikow. Another challenge is not being able to see underground. “You don’t know what’s connected to what—where the caves are, where the fractures are. Trying to characterize the subsurface is the biggest challenge hydrogeologists face. Geophysics and geochemistry is helping. There’s still a lot of mystery and uncertainty.”
