Territorial approach to increased energy consumption of water extraction from depletion of a highlands Mexican aquifer

Abstract

This work proposes a method to estimate increased energy consumption of pumping caused by a drawdown of groundwater level and the equivalent energy consumption of the motor-pump system in an aquifer under intensive exploitation. This method has been applied to the Valley of Toluca aquifer, located in the Mexican highlands, whose intensive exploitation is reflected in a decline in the groundwater level of between 0.10 and 1.6 m/year. Results provide a summary of energy consumption and a map of energy consumption isopleths showing the areas that are most susceptible to increases in energy consumption due to pumping. The proposed method can be used to estimate the effect of the intensive exploitation of the Valley of Toluca aquifer on the energy consumption of groundwater extraction. Finding reveals that, for the year 2006, groundwater extraction in the urban zone required 2.39 times more energy than the conditions observed 38 years earlier. In monetary terms, this reflects an increase of USD$ 3 million annually, according to 2005 energy production costs.

A tale of Mexico's most exploited—and connected—watersheds: the Basin of Mexico and the Lerma‐Chapala Basin

“…The large groundwater extraction rates across the Lerma‐Chapala basin have caused a generalized drawdown, as shown on Table . The drawdown rates are not uniform across the basin: 0.1–1.6 m/year in Toluca, 2 m/year near Irapuato and 2.4–3.9 m/year in Leon . In Queretaro, the drawdown rate for the 1970—2010 period was 2.5 m/year—equivalent to a total drawdown of 100 m—which is larger than the drawdown observed in the aquifers of the High Plains and the Central Valley in the United States.…”

Seguridad hídrica en México: diagnóstico general y desafíos principales

“…Pero sí en el consumo de energía, es decir, en un requerimiento cada vez mayor de energía para la explotación de acuíferos por abatimiento de niveles freáticos, ejemplo de ello es el acuífero del Valle de Toluca el cual ha incrementado, en promedio, el costo de extracción por cada m 3 de agua a la superficie en más de 239% en 2006, considerando un periodo de análisis de 1968 a 2006. Este aumento de requerimiento energético representa un costo adicional anual de cerca de 3 millones de dólares, de acuerdo con los costos de producción para el año 2005 (Fonseca et al, 2013).…”

Geoinformatics tool with an emergy accounting approach for evaluating the sustainability of water systems: Case study of the Lerma river, Mexico

“…According to official data (DOF, 2009), the ATV has a water recharge rate of 336.8 hm 3 /year, a discharge rate of 53.6 hm 3 /year, and an extracted volume of 422.4 hm 3 /year, yet taking into consideration water usage, there is an overall deficit of 152.4 hm 3 /year that is obtained from groundwater reserves. The overexploitation of ATV is reflected in the continual decrease of the groundwater level from 0.1 to 1.6 m/year (Fonseca et al, 2013b), corresponding with the proportion of internal water usage that comes from groundwater resources, at 95.8%, while the remaining portion is imported from neighboring surface waters (Fonseca et al, 2013b;IMTA, 2009). This is due to the fact that the surface waters of the UCLR are not apt for human consumption, which is a product of severe pollution resulting from effluents of industrial and domestic origin.…”

“…As an example, the developed geoinformatics tool is applied to the case study of the Upper Course of the Lerma River (UCLR), Mexico, where the associated aquifer is considered to be overexploited (Fonseca et al, 2013b;Esteller and Díaz-Delgado, 2002) and the surface waters reflect a lower quality than required for human consumption and other activities (Díaz-Delgado et al, 2014).…”