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Page added on May 21, 2013
Forget peak oil—start worrying about peak water
A report released today by the US Geological Survey (USGS) today shows that Americans are sucking dry the aquifers that irrigate their crops and supply their drinking water. Between 1900 and 2008, the US lost 1,000 cubic kilometers (240 cubic miles) of groundwater. That’s twice the volume of the water in Lake Erie.
It gets worse. The rate of groundwater depletion is accelerating, according to the study of 40 major US aquifers. Between 1900 and 2008, the US lost an average of 9.2 cubic kilometers of groundwater annually as the growth of cities and industrial agriculture tapped underground reserves. But between 2000 and 2008, groundwater depletion jumped 171% to an average of 25 cubic kilometers a year. In just those nine years, the amount of water pumped from the Ogallala aquifer, which supplies a large swath of the US, was equivalent to 32% of the water that was depleted from the Ogallala during the entire 20th century.
“Although groundwater depletion is rarely assessed and poorly documented, it is becoming recognized as an increasingly serious global problem that threatens sustainability of water supplies,” the USGS scientists wrote.
Climate change likely contributed to the spike as droughts reduce rainfall and snowmelt. In California, for instance, a falloff in Sierra Nevada mountain snow that supplies water to the state’s multibillion-dollar agriculture industry led to increased pumping of groundwater in the Central Valley.
And in a scary feedback loop, sinking aquifers are contributing, albeit only slightly, to a rise in sea levels. Much of the agricultural water pumped from aquifers ends up as runoff transported by streams and rivers into the ocean. (Depleted aquifers also result in the land sinking relative to ocean levels.) “Groundwater depletion in the US in the years 2000-2008 can explain more than 2% of the observed global sea-level rise during that period,” the study states.
If the groundwater pumping ceases, rainfall will slowly recharge aquifers, though that process can take hundreds or thousands of years. That time is likely to increase as climate change results in a drier, drought-stricken world.
10 Comments on "Forget peak oil—start worrying about peak water"
csatadi on Tue, 21st May 2013 10:10 am
Sinking earth slowly fills those huge empty holes and there will be nothing to recharge.
Kenz300 on Tue, 21st May 2013 10:56 am
This is a world wide problem………
Populations need to be in balance with resources — food and water are primary resources.
Around the world we can find a food crisis, a water crisis, a declining fish stocks crisis, a climate change crisis, a financial crisis a jobs crisis and an OVER POPULATION crisis.
Every country needs to develop plan to provide for their people. There needs to be a balance between population and resources. Countries with high birth rates are exporting their people rather than providing for them.
Access to family planning service needs to be available to all that want it.
Endless population growth is not sustainable.
BillT on Tue, 21st May 2013 2:08 pm
The Sahara Desert was once a great wilderness of jungle and savannahs. Then, it began to dry up as climates changed. It appears that the Midwest of the US is going to follow in it’s footsteps. Wonder what it will be called? The Desert of Greed?
DC on Tue, 21st May 2013 4:59 pm
We could sum up by saying, we treat water exactly like we do oil. As an unlimited resource that we can do with as we please with no constraints. The Colorado river in the US no longer even reaches the ocean most years. The water levels on that river ARE dropping. This will, in the near future, doom large areas of the US SW. I love how the US built those immense water diversion schemes that are open air and lose 1/3! of the water they transport to places like Phoenix and Las Vegas to simple evaporation before it reaches it destination.
Heavily subsidized corporate mono-cropping and a policy of endless population growth ensures that the Ogallala, is also doomed. A literal treasure that took millions of years to form will be squandered in two centuries.
Sound familiar at all?
LT on Tue, 21st May 2013 7:59 pm
The fundamental difference between oil and water is: Oil get consumed and transformed into CO2, while water get dirty, but not consumed, and after use, water still remains water, H2O, to be recycled or filtered out. In other words, after consumption process take place, oil will be gone, but water still remain there. It just become dirtier, and require filtering to make it clean again.
Norm on Tue, 21st May 2013 10:03 pm
Make giant underground tunnels. Send Columbia river water south from Portland region. Deliver to California, Nevada etc. Oh, but that would require foresight and planning,
so never mind.
J-Gav on Tue, 21st May 2013 10:16 pm
Don’t forget at all about peak oil! But always remember water is even more important …
IanC on Tue, 21st May 2013 10:20 pm
As a resident of Western Oregon where we are routinely soaked with water from a fortunate geological rainshadow from the Cascade mountains, I can tell you that some of us feel nervous about mass migrations from the depleted midwest to our region.
At least cheap farm labor will be easy to find. A second wave of Okies.
BillT on Wed, 22nd May 2013 1:35 am
I suspect that Phoenix and Las Vegas will be abandoned by 2050 or sooner. LA will be in trouble. The corn belt will be the dust belt. In fact, most southern states will be unlivable.
Kenz300 on Wed, 22nd May 2013 10:10 am
Oil, natural gas and nuclear power plants all require huge amounts of water to generate electricity.
Wind and solar power plant require NO WATER to produce electricity.
Another good reason to transition to safe, clean alternative energy sources.