America Is Using Up Its Groundwater Like There’s No Tomorrow

[Massdriver]

America Is Draining Its Groundwater Like There’s No Tomorrow - The New York Times

WWW.NYTIMES.COM

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Unchecked overuse is draining and damaging aquifers nationwide, a data investigation by the New York Times revealed, threatening millions of people and America’s status as a food superpower.

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“If we start showing that kind of data, that kind of goes into your property values,” Mr. Neel said. “If we show an area may be depleted in, let’s say, two years, well, if someone tries to sell that property, they’re not going to be able to.”

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As farmers ran out of water, they increasingly switched to what’s called dryland farming, relying on rain alone.

That change is reflected in corn yields over time. Last year, corn growers nationwide produced an average of 173 bushels per acre. But for Wichita County, the yield was just 70.6 bushels, the lowest in more than six decades. The same is true for neighboring counties, whose yields have fallen to where they were in the 1960s.

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It’s not just Kansas depleting its aquifers at a vicious clip. The same thing is playing out in areas around the country.

In Arkansas, one of the country’s biggest users of groundwater, more than twice as much water is being pumped annually from the main agricultural aquifer as rainfall and other sources put back in, according to state data.

 

In some places, the aquifer has fallen to less than 10 percent of capacity, the Arkansas Department of State warned this year. Arkansas produces roughly half the nation’s rice, a water-intensive crop.

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A little more than one-third of America’s total volume of drinking water comes from groundwater, according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey. But small and rural communities are disproportionately dependent on wells, which typically cost less than treating and transporting water from rivers and lakes. Of the nation’s 143,070 water systems, 128,362 rely primarily on groundwater, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

 

In one particularly stark example, Arizona said in June that it would stop granting permission to build houses in the Phoenix area that rely on groundwater, because there wasn’t enough water for the homes that had already been approved.

Arizona has seen an explosion of wells, and they’ve gotten much deeper. In effect, across much of the state, the wells are chasing rapidly falling water levels downward.

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Any effort to impose federal oversight would very likely face opposition from agricultural groups. The American Farm Bureau Federation, which represents farmers, said states were best suited to address groundwater problems. The federal government’s role should be to spend money on infrastructure projects and help farmers pay for new technology, according to Courtney Briggs, the federation’s senior director of government affairs.

 

 

 

In parts of West Texas, yields are already depressed because of aquifer depletion. Farmers have to pull from 4-6 wells at a time to feed one pivot, and they'll usually plant only a quarter to a half a circle of a crop if they intend to make a crop at all instead of failing it out to crop insurance. This is happening nationwide on a massive scale that is not sustainable. 

 

None of this is news to anyone that is halfway involved in agriculture. The interesting thing about the article is they zoomed out to show it isn't just one state or region. 

 

 

[Reputator]

Sweet another thing I get to stress over that I have no control of.

[SuperSpreader]

BRB gonna water my lawn 

[Xbob42]

24 minutes ago, SuperSpreader said:

BRB gonna water my lawn 

Going on a country-wide shit-in-every-well tour, everyone's welcome to join me!

[TUFKAK]

50 minutes ago, Reputator said:

Sweet another thing I get to stress over that I have no control of.

Just go full hedonist, the future isn’t Star Trek.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

🌊🔪

[ThreePi]

We need to build new pipelines... from the Great Lakes to the plains/mountain states.

[silentbob]

28 minutes ago, ThreePi said:

We need to build new pipelines... from the Great Lakes to the plains/mountain states.

HANDS OFF MY FUCKING WATER!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I need it for my weed  

[stepee]

2 hours ago, Massdriver said:

America Is Draining Its Groundwater Like There’s No Tomorrow

WWW.NYTIMES.COM

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it is fine cuz there isn’t one 

[Chris-]

Pennsylvania supremacy. 

[chakoo]

 

Boomers got to make sure they burn everything into the ground before they croak.

[Captain Pickle]

2 hours ago, silentbob said:

HANDS OFF MY FUCKING WATER!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I need it for my weed  

Does it smell and how much do your neighbors hate you

[Jason]

[silentbob]

2 minutes ago, Captain Pickle said:

Does it smell and how much do your neighbors hate you

my 5th year growing and haven’t heard them tell me anything bad yet. Just starting to get some smell with them flowering now. Sadly getting white powdery mildew on some of my plants and maybe some bugs. Something I gotta keep an eye out on.

[Captain Pickle]

16 minutes ago, silentbob said:

my 5th year growing and haven’t heard them tell me anything bad yet. Just starting to get some smell with them flowering now. Sadly getting white powdery mildew on some of my plants and maybe some bugs. Something I gotta keep an eye out on.

Coco puffs!!!! Market it you coward!

[finaljedi]

Quote

Any effort to impose federal oversight would very likely face opposition from agricultural groups. The American Farm Bureau Federation, which represents farmers, said states were best suited to address groundwater problems. The federal government’s role should be to spend money on infrastructure projects and help farmers pay for new technology, according to Courtney Briggs, the federation’s senior director of government affairs.

 

Yeah, of course.  The crooked morons that make up most of the country's statehouses will just do nothing so they don't make their benefactors mad and when it gets too bad the Governor can always ask the federal government to bail them out.

[Greatoneshere]

Boomers and Gen Xers right now:

 

[Massdriver]

7 hours ago, Reputator said:

Sweet another thing I get to stress over that I have no control of.

It can be stressful, but it’s also useful to know. Water is an issue that we can exercise an unusual amount of control over on the local level, or even neighborhood. For instance, one could lobby their HOA to ban grass, which is one of the most wasteful things in existence. Grass is not only water intensive to grow under pivot, but then once it is harvested, it continues to take high amounts of water to keep alive for years to come. 

[TUFKAK]

12 hours ago, Massdriver said:

It can be stressful, but it’s also useful to know. Water is an issue that we can exercise an unusual amount of control over on the local level, or even neighborhood. For instance, one could lobby their HOA to ban grass, which is one of the most wasteful things in existence. Grass is not only water intensive to grow under pivot, but then once it is harvested, it continues to take high amounts of water to keep alive for years to come. 

Despite my above hedonism comment, which I am still gonna do, I did my part here by having my front lawn replaced with drought resistant plants/rocks native to California and had my sprinkler system removed at the same time. 

[finaljedi]

13 hours ago, Massdriver said:

It can be stressful, but it’s also useful to know. Water is an issue that we can exercise an unusual amount of control over on the local level, or even neighborhood. For instance, one could lobby their HOA to ban grass, which is one of the most wasteful things in existence. Grass is not only water intensive to grow under pivot, but then once it is harvested, it continues to take high amounts of water to keep alive for years to come. 

 

The local level is more resistant to change than any other level of government.  You have land developers and other large companies leaning on politicians to not do anything to hurt their short term bottom lines.  Then you'll also get conservatives saying the crunchy liberals are coming for your grandma's azaleas, and then nothing gets done until really really late in the developing situation.  They'll just get the federal government to back water pipelines from the great lakes or whatever instead of maybe chilling out on building suburban sprawl where it doesn't rain.