We Are Paying a Steep Price for Aquifer Depletion
We Are Paying a Steep Price for Aquifer Depletion
An abundant reserve of subterranean water has played a pivotal role in shaping America, giving rise to its expansive cities and fertile farmland. However, an analysis by The New York Times reveals that we are fast depleting this invaluable resource.
In scrutinizing water level data from tens of thousands of monitoring sites, The Times has uncovered a burgeoning crisis that threatens the nation's future prosperity.
Over the past four decades, nearly half of these sites have experienced significant declines, with more water being extracted than nature can replenish.
In the past decade alone, four out of every ten sites reached unprecedented lows, culminating in a particularly dire situation last year.
Many of the aquifers that provide 90 percent of the nation's water resources, fueling the transformation of vast swaths of America into some of the world's most productive farmland, are now facing severe depletion.
These diminishing water resources are poised to inflict irreparable harm upon the American economy and society as a whole. The Times undertook an extensive investigation into groundwater depletion, involving interviews with over 100 experts, nationwide travel, and the compilation of a comprehensive database utilizing millions of monitoring site readings.
The investigation has revealed how sprawling urban areas and massive industrial farms are draining aquifers that may take centuries or even millennia to naturally replenish, if they ever recover at all. States and communities are already paying a steep price for this reckless behavior.
In states like Kansas, often regarded as the breadbasket of America, groundwater depletion has rendered the major aquifer beneath 2.6 million acres of land unable to sustain large-scale agriculture. Corn yields have plummeted, and if the trend persists, it could jeopardize America's status as a global food powerhouse. Farm irrigation in Kansas is estimated to swallow an average of more than 2 billion gallons of groundwater per day.
In 1982, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducted the initial assessment of the viability of constructing a Kansas aqueduct as part of a federal study aimed at augmenting the Ogallala Aquifer, which is the vital source of groundwater for the region. A 2015 update to the study estimated that the construction of the concrete-lined canal system could cost anywhere from $5 billion to $20 billion.
Additionally, annual energy expenses of up to $522 million would be required to pump the water uphill to its ultimate reservoir located in western Kansas.
“The legal, economic, physical and regulatory hurdles this thing faces are virtually infinite,” Burke Griggs, a law professor at Washburn University in Topeka, Kan., told The Wall Street Journal. “There’s no way this will ever be built.”
The Ogallala Aquifer, one of the most severely depleted aquifers in the United States, lies under parts of eight central U.S. states, running from South Dakota to Texas. It adds $3.8 billion to the value of the land in western Kansas, one 2022 study found. At the current pumping rates, the Ogallala Aquifer could be entirely depleted within 50 years.
Wallace County, Kansas, bordering Colorado, has lost more than 80% of the water in its corner of the Ogallala Aquifer, the highest percentage loss in the state. In some parts of Wallace County, the water level has dropped by seven feet in the past year alone. T
The water level in the aquifer has fallen by an average of nearly two feet statewide this year, the third-largest decline since the 1990s. This is due to extreme drought, which has forced farmers to irrigate their crops more than usual.
Arkansas, another major groundwater consumer, is pumping more than twice the amount of water from its main aquifer than is replaced, according to the Times. Earlier this year the state, which produces about half of domestically-grown rice, warned that the aquifer was down to less than one-tenth of its capacity in some regions.
In New York State, excessive pumping is jeopardizing drinking water wells on Long Island, the birthplace of the modern American suburb. In rapidly growing areas like Phoenix, the crisis has reached such severity that the state has declared insufficient groundwater in some regions to support new housing developments reliant on aquifers.
In parts of Utah, California, and Texas, excessive water extraction is causing roads to warp, foundations to crack, and fissures to emerge in the earth's surface. Across the country, rivers that once depended on groundwater now barely resemble their former selves, reduced to mere streams or fading memories.
In California, one of the biggest sources of produce in the country, more than 76 of the aquifer basins are pumping water out faster than it can refill. The record rainfall this winter has done little to remedy the crisis, as much of it was carried into the ocean by the state’s rivers.
“There is no way to get [depleted groundwater] back,” Don Cline, the associate director for water resources at the United States Geological Survey, told the Times. “There’s almost no way to convey how important it is.”
Yet, the depletion of this vital but unseen natural resource remains largely unregulated. The federal government's involvement is minimal, and individual states have implemented a bewildering array of often feeble regulations.
Incredibly, in some states such as Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado, rules even permit the extraction of groundwater until it is entirely exhausted.
According to the United States Geological Survey, about 1,000 cubic kilometers of groundwater have been depleted in the United States since 1900. Depletion rates have escalated since the 1950s, with recent data indicating an average annual depletion rate of approximately 25 cubic kilometers per year.
The consequences of aquifer depletion are far-reaching and detrimental, encompassing diminished water availability for drinking, irrigation, and industrial purposes, heightened water pollution, land subsidence (sinking), and an increased risk of flooding.
What's more is that the depletion rate is projected to intensify due to climate change, which is anticipated to result in reduced precipitation and increased evaporation.
The Reality of Chinese Farmland Ownership in America
State and federal lawmakers are expressing concerns regarding Chinese entities acquiring significant portions of U.S. farmland, some of which are in proximity to sensitive locations, raising potential national security issues.
Despite these apprehensions, a comprehensive review of thousands of documents submitted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) over the past 18 months reveals minimal Chinese acquisitions in the agricultural sector.
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