Memphis water is pumped from a vast aquifer that that stretches under eight states. Dr. Brian Waldron is the Director of the Center for Applied Earth Science and Engineering (CAESER) at the University of Memphis and is working with students to assess and find potential dangers to the water in the aquifer.
This week on WKNO-TV's Behind the Headlines, Waldron joins Ward Archer, President of Protect our Aquifer, and Scott Banbury, Conservation Program Coordinator for the TN Chapter of the Sierra Club.
Waldron discusses his department's ongoing study, including some of the results of that CAESER has found testing the local aquifer.
Archer says that Memphis is one of nation's largest cities that gets its water from an aquifer, over which there are limited regulations and control. Archer says citizens should be concerned about industrial contamination getting into our groundwater.
Banbury has been keeping an eye on the toxin-filled, coal ash pits at the old Allen power plant. Banbury lays out TVA's plans for the pits, which are separated from the Memphis aquifer by several layers of clay and earth.
