Recently,

other environmental concerns associated with HVHF in New York have come to the forefront of discussion. This includes a water quantity perspective, which is traditionally less critical in regions that have ample freshwater supplies in humid climates and/or large, proximate freshwater bodies (Rahm and Riha, 2012). HVHF requires large volumes of water which will ultimately increase water demand from the regions that will experience development. Increased water demand will prompt regulators to determine from where, and at what rate, this water should VRT752271 order be extracted to protect sustainable use for drinking water, agriculture, and other industry demands. Altered stream geochemistry and consequences to stream ecosystems, as a result of decreased stream discharge, are factors beyond the anthropogenic freshwater demands mentioned

above that may merit consideration. Although water budgets from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) demonstrate that increased water demands from HVHF in New York would make up a minor fraction of total water use (NYSDEC, 2011), it is unclear how hydraulically linked groundwater–surface water systems might respond to such a development. Water budgets alone may not be sufficient in predicting the spatially variable response of these systems, particularly in identifying areas which present heightened sensitivity to withdrawals. For example, the response of aquifers and streams to increased withdrawals of water might vary as a function S3I-201 mouse of valley width, thickness and depth of aquifers within the valley fill. Additionally, smaller streams might be vulnerable to induced changes in groundwater discharge during drought. The projected path of HVHF development of the Marcellus Shale in New York will most likely focus on the Southern Tier of the state, including Broome and Tioga counties (Fig. Baricitinib 1). The major valleys within these counties overlie an unconsolidated glacial valley-fill aquifer

network which has been classified as a sole source aquifer since 1985 (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2010). Such a designation emphasizes the importance of this groundwater source to the overlying municipalities, which receive more than half of their drinking water from the aquifer. In this region there is a high degree of hydraulic connectivity between streams and underlying unconsolidated glacial deposits (Randall, 1977, Wolcott and Coon, 2001 and Yager, 1993). High-volume withdrawals of water from groundwater may elicit a response from surface water, or vice versa, due to their physical connectivity (Winter et al., 1998). It is therefore necessary to investigate how different development scenarios might affect both the water table and stream flow.