A new study looking at key aquifers beneath the Great Plains and California’s Central Valley suggests that areas of Texas and Kansas are drawing groundwater at an unsustainable rate.
Key farming regions in the US are drawing water from underground sources at unsustainable rates, with slightly more than one-third of the southern Great Plains at risk of tapping out its sources within the next 30 years.
Those are among the conclusions of a study of the nation’s two major aquifers – one underlying the high plains, the other beneath California’s Central Valley – published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Concerns over the loss of groundwater in these areas aren’t new. But the researchers say the tools they’ve used build a detailed picture of these critical water sources – how the amount of water they contain varies with time, location, and regional climate patterns – could allow for more nuanced approached to local water management.
We certainly need to be more aware of how we use groundwater, and how the levels in the major aquifers are monitored and maintained. Obviously, the CSM isn’t a scientific source, but this has been discussed as a “major problem” since I was a very young person, and it hasn’t gotten substantially worse, I can only wonder why it’s begin brought to the fore again now.
“Cadillac Desert” is a must read if you want to familiarize yourself with the United States’ insane water policies West of the Mississippi.
A “more nuanced approach to local water management” is another way of saying there’s more regulations and bureaucrats on the way.
Reblogged this on frackingstress and commented:
And this could be Michigan next if we allow them to use 6-8 million gallons of water per well AND the oil companies are EXEMPT thanks to the “Haliburton Loophole”….
Haliburton . . . Haliburton . . . isn’t that those nice people who help put gas in my tank?
Could be….but why isn’t more money being spent on making wind energy and solar energy more affordable for the masses? Why must we always use destruction to propel ourselves forward?
Perhaps, but the gas they’re after now isn’t what goes in your cars gas tank, it’s natural gas (as in heating) and 80% of it gets shipped overseas for immediate profit. Once ours is gone, who will we be buying it from and what will we be paying to have it shipped here????
Does this mean you are in favor of propane gel fracking then?
No, I haven’t even heard of propane gel fracking. My biggest complaint with the horizontal fracking is the millions of gallons of fresh water that is poisoned and then used to drill these wells. Only 40-60 % of that toxic water is returned, the rest I can only assume must remain in the well which now has numerous fissures that could continue to crack upward and thus expose drinking water aquifers to these chemicals not to mention drain the aquifers, etc. I will have to research propane gel fracking and let you know how I feel about that.
You’ve just made if obvious you know squat about hydraulic fracturing – you’re just agin it. That’s a shame. If you learn about it perhaps you won’t live in quite so much fear.
En passant, with regard to your reply to GC, above, it isn’t just affordability that counts so heavily against solar and wind but availability and reliability that ensures they will only be niche products and not baseload supply.
I’m reminded of this article
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/extrapolating.png
Seriously, we can easily reduce this water usage to sustainable levels if we try, and there is no justifying an argument that this will not be done in the ensuing decade. It just means that we have to properly manage our resources.
Why does every management issue become a “panic, we’re going to die” issue for the Greens?
Using the Ogallala aquifer water in Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska to produce corn ethanol is an insane waste of a resources. Not only does it produce little to no net energy, but depletes a fresh water source. Congress needs to stop the ethanol mandate!
“why isn’t more money being spent on making wind energy and solar energy more affordable for the masses?”
Yogi Berra couldn’t have said it better.