The Colorado River basin has lost large amounts of groundwater over the past two decades, according to New report From researchers at Arizona State University. The researchers used NASA’s satellite data to draw a map of the rapid exhaustion supplier.
The area that includes Seven Western countriesIt has lost 27.8 million acres of groundwater since 2003. This is almost the size of Lake Meed, the largest reservoir in the country.
The results add a layer of complications Already Colorado River. Since the demand for its water descriptions, more users may turn to groundwater instead, which is often less organized than water than rivers and tables above the ground.
Most of the water preservation work throughout the Colorado River Basin Focus On discounts to use surface water. Some river experts say that the focus should be wider.
Brian Richter analyzes water and science policy as president of sustainable water. He was not a study author, but he says that the results of it showed the need for a “total perspective” on water management of the region’s leaders.
He said: “It indicates that we must become more aggressive and more urgent in reducing our general consumption of water.”
The study found that the groundwater losses in the Colorado River basin were 2.4 times larger than the amount of water lost from the roofs of Lake Powell, Lake Med, and a number of other smaller tanks that store the water of the Colorado River. The study highlights the use of huge water for cultivation in the Colorado River basin, and said that the industry may suffer from some of the greatest consequences if the region continues to cancel the limited water supply.
Most of the losses occurred in the lower pelvic states in the Arizona River, California, and Nevada. The study says, “Activist Management Holds” for Arizona, which was established by the state Organizing the underground water withdrawalMaybe you helped slow down.
Cathlein Ferris, the architect of groundwater laws in Arizona, said more work to protect groundwater.
“We are not on the right path,” said Ferris, who did not participate in the study. “We are behind the eight ball, and I am really sad because nothing seemed to have had to think about this issue 25 years ago.”
Ferris is now an older research colleague at the Kiel Water Policy Center at Arizona State University.
While experts call for the most powerful groundwater management policies, Reichter said that this study provides a small silver lining: scientists produce better data than ever, giving policymakers a better sense of water problems in the region.
“From the point of view of public policy, this is bad news,” he said. “This tells us that it is worse than we thought, because we now understand what is happening under the ground as well. From a scientific perspective, this type of study is good news, because he says that we are now more able to describe the water problem accurately like what we face in the Colorado River system.”
This story is part of the continuous coverage of the West water, which KUNC produces in Colorado and with the support of the Walton Family Foundation. KUNC is only responsible for its editorial coverage.
