Quality of groundwater in Bermuda💧

💡 𝑫𝒊𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 that #SeaLevelRise may affect the quality of groundwater in the future?

𝐈𝐧 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐮𝐝𝐚, 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝟔𝟎% 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐮𝐝𝐚𝐧 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐟𝐬 (estimated value) and the remainder of potable water comes from reverse osmosis, seawater reverse osmosis (24%) and groundwater reverse osmosis (16%).

The groundwater is one of the key sources of water supply system of Bermuda.

𝐇𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐚 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞, the sea water takes over the volume of bedrock and the volume of rock available to develop the freshwater lenses decreases. That means this could result in the increase of salinity of #groundwater and may reduce the #water quality eventually.

📈 Results of recent study conducted by ASU Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences indicate that after short (es­timated five-hour) lags, extreme sea level events in 2019 and 2020 produced salinity spikes in the St. George’s lens water.

👉 That is to say, the more frequent the sea level reaches its extreme and gradually rises overtime, the worst Bermumda's groundwater quality may be.