Ogallala aquifer drying up.

RJB , we dont suffer from a lack of water, after all, water is a cycle that gets recycled. We can pump fresh water as it discharges into the ocean basins and we can pump sea water and treat it, or we can tap other aquifers (there are a quite few-see USGS water reports) ITll just cost a lot . Im against pumping rivers because they are so limited in area , we can easily dry up a river. BUT we can pump fresh water from te bottom of the sea

AMIGO, When I was in school in the 70's, They predicted that the Edwards and The Ogallala would be dewatered by 2000, Apparently the aquifers were bigger and more compressive than thought.

In California and some EWast Coast states, they recharge rainfall and treated sewage

I guess I made a comment on this thread but I must admit I am like a fish out of water. I know nothing about the science here.
I am still stumbling over the start of a post:



Really?
I am obviously missing something yall are talking about here.

we're using up all the "easy" water.

if we have to, we can go all science fiction and make water.

water rights are a big deal where I live...

It isnt really an amount issue. Its a "form and quality issue". Even in a desert, we have the technology to "mine" water or to pipe it from places beyond. Much fresh water just goes to waste by dicharging from continental slopes into peri continental basins. There used to be serious proposals to tow icebergs to cosatal areas and then melt and pipe the water. ACtually its easier to go deep and pump up the fresh water "Springs" that , because of fresh waters lower density, gets mixed in with sea water .

I don't pretend, fman, to understand what you are talking about with regards to fresh water or the lack of it. You make it sound so simple.
When I was a lad of 23 or so I hitch hiked for a few years. Including Africa. Ethiopia, where it might take 20 acres to raise one scrawny cow. Are you saying that we have the technology to bring water to that perpetually drought stricken area?
Are you saying that we in the US can build sprawling cities in the desert region of the SW and there will be a way to provide them with all the water they will ever want?
I don't mean to be a prick, fman, but I just don't understand where you are coming from. Fresh water to me is a finite resource.
Clearly, you think otherwise.
Perhaps its a matter of you being the scientist looking at what is technically possible while I, the economist, see it from a different perspective.

Does it make sense (in a way) to say water doesn't leave the planet but just moves around in one way or another, in one form or another?

And thay we just need to manipulate/intervene this process?

What we can do to get water and what WE ARE DOING are two different things. Salinization plants cost major big bucks and nobody is doing that.
FM wrote:water is a cycle that gets recycled
The recycled water is now so diverted that California growing areas are cut off from that recycled water.
We should be putting a limit on pools and fountains in the western US., instead of cutting off farmers.
We are going to have a water shortage, because we already have water shortages in some parts of the US and many parts of the world.
In the 70's I heard we would be drinking bottled water in 20 years, now we are.
The problem is conservation and how our water is being used. Not how are we going to get more water, because the govt does not seem concerned at this time or ever.

During recent water restrictions no domestic garden watering was allowed. no hosing down pavements, NO carwashing.
Businesses dependant on water were given special dispensation as much money would have been lost.
A carwash business had a sign saying SAVE WATER wash your car here.
stage 4 water restrictions should be the norm not the exception.

I must admit that, in America we are profligate in our respect for water. In the deserts of California, we ship vast amounts of water in open aqueducts, yet in NY state, we pipe it all underground. We keep cities like LAs Vegas Awash in water and make this resource a battle between haves and have nots. We are not very bright in our sense of conservation.

I dont bitch because my company makes a very good living by "mining" water as a resource

Every home should be equipped with a water tank of 10K litres. In large urban areas these would be used to water gardens, flush toilets and wah cars rather than drinking water.
During past droughts friends have recycled some of their water 3 times.
1 tub of bath water did for both people. It was then used to flush the toilet bucket the water out of the bath into the cistern as required. In addition they had a "if its yellow let it mellow, if its brown flush it down" policy"
Water reclaimed from the septic system was the only water their garden got.

wellllll, maybe thats a little too much conservation for the typical USer. We live under a false belief that our water is "pure" He He He. Im not tellin

There are not many places that natural water actually meets WHO standards.
FM
what does a water mine look like?

"mining" water is a term of engineering art where we extract water at a rate that is greater than that in which it is replaced into the aquifer.

We use terms like Transmissivity and Storativity which are merely math measures that tell us the rate at which we are extracting water subtracted from the rate at which nature replenishes it.

In the US we dont use artificial recharge of rainfall and runnoff nearly as much as we should. We dump most of our sewage into rivers when we should treat it to a higher level and let it percolate back into the ground for another cycle.

Neither do we. Potable water is used once treated and dumped either into the sea or a river or evaporated.
Home town treatment plant recently set up a re use system. The treated water is piped to the golf course fo watering.

I predict that artificial recharge systems will come more into the mainstream as we try to clean up rivers and further try to increase water availability. This will be a technique that desert cities like LAs Vegas and Phoenix or La should use

When I was a kid, my mother used to draw one bath for all of the kids up until I was about six. We also bathed once a week . . . which most people did at the time. A daily shower was unheard of.

The girls at my Catholic elementary school wore jumpers and blouses . . . they wore two blouses in a week, wearing one twice and the other three times. Of course, we changed into "play clothes" when we got home and we would wear those play clothes for the entire week.

The amount of water a working class family used in a week during the 1950s was far less then the amount a similar family uses now.

Thats where grey water comes in.

http://www.greywater.com/

you hit on the biggest part of the problem.
"our generation will be OK" that's the selfish completely short sited thinking that creates most our huge problems. other species on the planet have some built in drive for the future of their species. We humans, in our advanced knowledge have to learn to not give a damn about the future, so long as today makes a buck! (fossil fuels anyone)

You are right, $$$$ and lust, control human actions.
How about we create a pipeline which carries water, say from the Mississippi delta, to the farm land. Even if it takes 25 -50 years,The Ogallala will dry up. Lets do something to allow food to be produced when the event happens.