Federal Study Shows That Withdrawals From AZ Groundwater In Past 70 Years = 3X Volume Of Lake Powell

[hatrack]

PHOENIX – Arizona has depleted its groundwater over the past 70 years enough to fill Lake Powell nearly three times, according to the first federal study of the state’s groundwater since the 1980s.

Knowing that fact and others contained in the U.S. Geological Survey’s report will help policy makers better understand the state’s limited water resources, said Fred Tillman, a Tucson-based hydrologist who served as the study’s lead author. “It’s critical that we are vigilant about our groundwater use,” he said.

The study, which covers 1940 through 2007, establishes a baseline measurement of levels in the state’s aquifers prior to development, allowing researchers and policy makers to assess how population growth has affected the state’s groundwater.

The 45 alluvial basins in the state, which are composed of sand, silt and clay, account for 95 percent of Arizona’s groundwater usage. Over nine years beginning in 1997, the study looked at wells in areas with the most groundwater usage. Of the 1,279 wells studied, 53 percent were losing water at a rate of 1 foot or more per year. Twenty-one percent showed groundwater levels rising by 1 foot or more per year, while the remaining 26 percent were nearly stable – gaining or losing no more than 1 foot per year.

EDIT

http://cronkitenewsonline.com/2011/09/federal-report-documents-depletion-of-arizonas-groundwater-due-to-agriculture-growth/

[indepat]

1. Flying into the Phoenix airport some eight years ago, as we were about to land,

I counted 13 brimming-full swimming pools among the 14 houses in one block and wondered how can this be in the desert. Man has used a goodly portion of the earth's known fossil fuels, untold millions of years in the making, in less than 200 years, and swimming pools out the ga-zoo in the desert would seem a monument to man's colossal stupidity, as this study affirms. :cry: :patriot: