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Related: About this forumIn Colorado River Basin, Groundwater Is Disappearing Much Faster than Lake Mead
In Colorado River Basin, Groundwater Is Disappearing Much Faster than Lake Mead
The mineral-stained canyon walls and the plunging water levels at Lake Mead, the nations largest reservoir, are the most visible signs of the driest 14-year period in the Colorado River Basins historical record.
But the receding shorelines at the Basins major reservoirs including Lake Mead, which fell to a record-low level this month, and Lake Powell, the second largest reservoir on the Colorado, 290 kilometers (180 miles) upstream from Mead are an insignificant hydrological change compared to the monumental disruption taking place underground.
Satellite data show that in the last nine years, as a powerful drought held fast and river flows plummeted, the majority of the freshwater losses in the Basin nearly 80 percent came from water pumped out of aquifers.
The decrease in groundwater reserves is a volume of water equivalent to one and a half times the amount held in a full Lake Mead, according to a study published today in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
We didnt think it would be this bad, said Stephanie Castle, a researcher at the University of California, Irvine, and the studys lead author. Basin-wide groundwater losses are not well documented. The number was shocking.
The mineral-stained canyon walls and the plunging water levels at Lake Mead, the nations largest reservoir, are the most visible signs of the driest 14-year period in the Colorado River Basins historical record.
But the receding shorelines at the Basins major reservoirs including Lake Mead, which fell to a record-low level this month, and Lake Powell, the second largest reservoir on the Colorado, 290 kilometers (180 miles) upstream from Mead are an insignificant hydrological change compared to the monumental disruption taking place underground.
Satellite data show that in the last nine years, as a powerful drought held fast and river flows plummeted, the majority of the freshwater losses in the Basin nearly 80 percent came from water pumped out of aquifers.
The decrease in groundwater reserves is a volume of water equivalent to one and a half times the amount held in a full Lake Mead, according to a study published today in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
We didnt think it would be this bad, said Stephanie Castle, a researcher at the University of California, Irvine, and the studys lead author. Basin-wide groundwater losses are not well documented. The number was shocking.
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In Colorado River Basin, Groundwater Is Disappearing Much Faster than Lake Mead (Original Post)
GliderGuider
Jul 2014
OP
4139
(1,893 posts)1. I don't think the southwest and California will react until...
...there is not enough water to flush the commodes and then it will be too late
Adsos Letter
(19,459 posts)2. Add this to that...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1040&pid=6958
The future out here in The West could be grim indeed.
The future out here in The West could be grim indeed.
Nihil
(13,508 posts)3. "We didn’t think it would be this bad"
That's the last couple of centuries of Homo Sapiens in a nutshell.
The Executive Summary is simply: "We didn't think."