groundwater
Groundwater Pumping Decreasing AZ’s Verde River Streamflow
263-Mile Water Pipeline to Las Vegas Approved
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has given the Southern Nevada Water Authority the right of way to install a 263-mile pipeline that will transport billions of gallons of groundwater from rural areas in eastern Nevada to Las Vegas, reports the Associated Press.
Groundwater Resources Stressed Across the Globe
Humans are overexploiting groundwater on a massive scale, with a global groundwater footprint (the area required to sustain groundwater use and support ecosystems) 3.5 times that of the actual area of aquifers.
Groundwater Depletion Threatens Western Crop Production
Groundwater depletion in the U.S. High Plains—including parts of Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas—and in California’s Central Valley could potentially impact crop production in these regions, according to a recent study published in PNAS.
Groundwater Pumping a Large Contributor to Sea Level Rise
About 42 percent of the observed sea-level rise between 1961 and 2003, or about 0.03 inches per year, were from sources other than thermal expansion and melting glaciers and ice sheets, according to a new study in Nature Geoscience.
Southern Nevada Seeks Federal Water Help; Gets State Help
Suffering from a decade-long drought, the Southern Nevada Water Authority, along with water representatives from New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle, appealed in a Capitol Hill briefing for help from the federal government last week, reports the Las Vegas Review.
Texas Groundwater Levels Surpass 60-Year Low
The latest groundwater storage map based on data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites shows severely depressed groundwater levels spanning the region from Arizona to Florida.
Global Water Resources Analysis Highlights Future Vulnerabilities
The EU Water and Global Change program (WATCH) released the final report on its analysis of the world’s water resources.
Arizona’s Groundwater Basins Down 3X Lake Powell Volume
The alluvial basins of Arizona lost about 74.5 million acre-ft of groundwater between 1940 and 2007, a volume comparable to three times the maximum storage of Lake Powell. A new report from USGS evaluates groundwater availability and use in 45 Arizona basins or management areas, which account for 95% of the state’s groundwater use.
Can Groundwater Depletion Contribute to Sea Level Rise?
Most water pumped from the ground ends up in surface water bodies, eventually making its way to the ocean, and thus has the potential to contribute to sea level rise. In a recent study, the author found an equivalent sea level rise of about 0.5 inches was depleted from global groundwater storage from 1900 to 2008.