MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
US aquifer supplying 30% of irrigated groundwater and stretching under eight states rapidly depleting
Almost 70% of the groundwater stored in parts of the United States' High Plains Aquifer, a vast underground reservoir that stretches through eight states, from South Dakota to Texas, and supplies 30% of the US irrigated groundwater, could be used up within 50 years unless current water use is reduced, a new study finds Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesThis should not be news to anybody. I remember that this was a concern in the 1970s. Time to fix it!
Aug 27th, 2013 - 10:12 pm - Link - Report abuse 0(1) Hepatia
Aug 28th, 2013 - 01:44 am - Link - Report abuse 0I said the same thing to myself after reading the article's header! :-)
Unfortunately for the USA 'benefit now' always wins over 'benefit later'.
Aug 28th, 2013 - 06:13 am - Link - Report abuse 0In a couple of generations we will see Steinbeck's dust-bowls across the eight central states - accentuated by the climate change destruction of the stability of the water cycle.
Inconvenient, or what!?
But politicians are physically unable to think in terms of 'a couple of generations'.
“... much more important to keep Las Vegas supplied to super-abundance”.
What a ridiculous article, those states have been under drought conditions for the last couple of years. I am sure in the next 50 yrs there will be enough rain to get it back to normal levels or if not there will be technology to mitigate the problem.
Aug 29th, 2013 - 08:38 am - Link - Report abuse 0I hate when people use a small window of data to show something as dramatically as possible when in reality if you look at something over a longer range you can see not much has really changed.
Eco-Nazis are are always getting everyone riled up over nothing.
Seems like it's not just the politicians that think short-term.
Aug 29th, 2013 - 03:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0This is an aquifer filled over geological time,
used up over post-technological time-scales,
re-filled over geological timescales, perhaps.
Can you see the problem?
5. Pretty snotty eco nazi response.
Aug 29th, 2013 - 04:31 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It just like oil that has been running out since it was first discovered. Technology will fix it when it becomes economically desirable to do so.
Worse come to worse we can buy it from Canada they have plenty of water if we somehow run out.
I don't see that happening though, this is all scare tactics like global warming or as they call it now climate change. When I was young everyone was saying there was going to be an ice age.
Sheesh these people are never right
Why bother listening to them?
Yes, I have been a Chartered Ecologist specialising in water, pollution and fisheries - but that was before I retired.
Aug 30th, 2013 - 05:42 am - Link - Report abuse 0Now? Just an old guy hoping to better inform you.
Plains acquafer almost gone, Colorado river almost gone, farmland in east USA almost vanished...
Sep 03rd, 2013 - 12:02 am - Link - Report abuse 0I'd say in about 20 years Argentina will be helping the USA avoid starvation, due to the Americans just not having any brains on the subject of sustainable growth.
8. Dream on. The more likely outcome is that Argentina will have poisoned its soil with pesticides so teh grains are editable.and since their farmers can't afford to use fertilizer any longer the soil will be stripped beyond any use in less than a decade.
Sep 03rd, 2013 - 09:54 am - Link - Report abuse 0For gosh sakes you have run out of Wheat this year!
Do you think it will be any better next year?
Looks like the next to go is corn
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