The Ogallala Aquifer is a shallow water table aquifer, an underground lake beneath the surface. It is located beneath the Great Plains in the United States. The Ogallala Aquifer is one of the largest aquifers and it covers a 175,000 miles squared area (Approximately). Its area spreads underneath eight states: South Dakota, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Colorado. It was given the name because of its type locality near the small town of Ogallala, Nebraska in 1898. The Ogallala Aquifer is very important to United States agriculture. Approximately 25 percent of the irrigated land in America overlies the aquifer. In addition, 30 percent of the ground water used for irrigation comes from this. The Ogallala Aquifer is crucial to some …show more content…
The estimated decrease is roughly 10 percent since then. Recently the decrease of volume has been increasing drastically. This includes a 2 percent loss from 2001 to 2010. There are even aquifer zones that are completely empty. The drastic changes in water level decline in the Ogallala Aquifer are impacting the United States severely. The impacts of the water level dropping more than 100 feet in some areas and the saturated thickness being reduced more than half in other areas are severe. Since the water level decline in the Ogallala aquifer the impacts include lowering of the water table, increased costs for the users of the water, reduction of water in lakes and streams, land subsidence, and deterioration of water quality. Lowering of the water table occurs because in order for water to be withdrawn from the ground, water must be pumped from a well that reaches below the water table. Since the water levels have declined so much the well owner has to deepen the well or drill a new well in order to lower the pump to reach the aquifer. The water levels declining may also cause the water yield for the well to
The Ogallala Aquifer was found in 1889. Since then, 170,000 wells have been made, just in SW Kansas. If we stop pumping right now it will take hundreds of years to refill. If we use it until it is completely dry, it will take 6,000 years to naturally refill. One of the main reasons the aquifer is drying up so fast is center pivot irrigation, which is used by a lot of farmers in SW Kansas. 50% of the water brought up through the wells to water crops is wasted. Water is being pumped out much faster than the Ogallala Aquifer can replenish, therefore dropping the water levels in the aquifer severely.
The Colorado River starts in the Rocky Mountains and cuts through 1500 miles of desert canyon lands of seven US states and two Mexican states to supply water the southwestern US [1, 2]. From early settlement, the basin states have debated and reassigned the water rights to the river; however, all the distribution patterns lead to excessive consumption of the resource [2]. In 1922, the seven states signed into the Colorado River Compact, which outlined the policy for the distribution rights to the water [3], however, this compact was written during an exceptionally wet period, which has shown to be uncharacteristic of the long-term conditions [4]. As the century progressed, the climate cycled into the traditional drier climate and by the 1950s, the river no longer met its delta in the Gulf of California [2]. Coupled with growing populations in the Western US in the late 20th century, the reservoirs and groundwater supplies have seen steady declines from a consumption pattern that is outpacing the system's ability to replenish itself and raises concerns about the future water supply [5].
The Ohio River Basin covers the area about 203.940 miles, which is located in northeast of the United States surrounding the easternmost regions of the Mississippi Basin. The mainstream of the basin, the Ohio River itself, winds its way through 6 states or commonwealths around: Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. The basin consists of one mainstream, which serves as the largest tributary of the Mississippi river, and its various tributaries, among which the Allegany and Monongahela tributaries serves as the source water of the Ohio river mainstream, where the Ohio River begins at the confluence of these two tributaries. The Ohio River basin cover across 15 states that supports beyond 27 million people, equaling to 10% of the population in the United States, with drinking water, jobs and various kinds of recreational opportunities. [2]
Between groundwater and surface water there are many different laws and rules that landowners and right owners have to abide by. Water found below the earth’s surface in the crevices of soil and rocks is called groundwater. Texas groundwater law was made by a judge. The law was derived from the English common law rule of “absolute ownership.” Groundwater belongs to the owners of the land above it and may be used or sold as their own private property. Texas adopted the common law rule that a landowner has the right to use or sale all the water that he can capture from below his land. A nickname for the Texas water law is the “law of the biggest pump.” Texas courts have consistently ruled that a landowner has a right to pump all the water that he can from beneath his land regardless of the water level in his neighbor’s wells. Landowner own all the underground water until it is shown that the source of supply is a subterranean river. Both stream underflow and subterranean rivers have been expressly excluded from the definition of underground water in Section 52.001 of the Texas Water Code. The funny thing about the Texas groundwater law is that one landowner can dry up an adjoining landowner’s well and the landowner with the dry well is without a legal remedy. Texas courts have refused to adopt the American rule of “reasonable use” with respect to groundwater. But there are five situations in which Texas landowner can take legal action for interference with his groundwater rights. First, if an adjoining neighbor trespasses on the land to remove water either by drilling a well directly on the landowner’s property or by drilling a “slant” well on adjoining property so that it crosses the subterranean property line, the injured landowner can sue for trespass. Second, there is a malicious or wanton conduct in pumping water for the sole purpose of injuring an adjoining
Water is essential to life. By being so important it is crucial to keep it maintained and preserved. Our water supply is affected by environmental, economic, and legal issues. In Oklahoma water is very sacred to its people especially to Native Americans. Both Choctaw and Chickasaw nations are suing the state of Oklahoma for the regulatory authority over Sardis Lake and the water resources it holds. The Choctaw and Chickasaw nations deserve the rights over Sardis Lake because it is their main water supply and they own the rights through the treaty of the Dancing Rabbit Creek of 1830.
To understand why the problem is important, it is necessary to know some basic facts about the Ogalla Aquifer. This underground reservoir covers 174,000 square miles. According to John Opie, author of Ogallala: Water for a Dry Land, the Ogallala was formed over the course of millions of years as the land flooded, dried out, and flooded again. As centuries passed, glaciers melted, carrying water, silt, and rocks from the Rockies down to the Great Plains to form the Ogalla. Dirt, clay, and rocks accumulated above it so that the waters of the Ogallala can now be reached at depths of 300 feet beneath the surface (29-35). Some people think that the Ogallala is a huge underground lake, but this idea is wrong. As Erla Zwingle puts it, an aquifer such as the Ogallala is like a "gigantic underground sponge"(83). The water fills in the spaces between the sand, silt, clay, and gravel that make up the Ogallala formation. This 1,000 feet; the average thickness, however, is about 200 feet (Zwingle 85). The aquifer reaches its deepest points under the state of Nebraska, which is not surprising because most of the because Ogallala's water lies beneath this state. The rest lies under Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming.
Groundwater remained the main supply until 1971 which was when Las Vegas became more dependent on Colorado River water due to the “Southern Nevada Water System” (Brown, n.d.; Larsen et al., 2015). Since then up to 90,000 acre-feet of groundwater has been pumped on a yearly basis, this value surpasses the natural groundwater recharge (Laczniak et al., n.d.). Rain as well as snow serves as the primary sources of groundwater recharge for the aquifers while precipitation plays a minor role (Laczniak et al., n.d.). Due to there not being balanced discharge and recharge this has led to subsidence and as a result of this subsidence the storage capacity of aquifers has decreased due to compaction (Laczniak et al., n.d.). It is estimated that 187,000 acre feet of storage capacity in the aquifers has been lost due to compaction (Laczniak et
It includes the water found in lakes, reservoirs, and groundwater that is shallow enough to be tapped at an affordable cost. These freshwater sources are the only sources that are frequently replenished by rain and snowfall, and therefore are renewable. At the current rates of consumption, however, this supply of fresh water will not last. Pollution and contamination of freshwater sources exacerbate the problem, further reducing the amount of freshwater available for human consumption. Something must be done if humans want to even survive in the near future: the lack of clean drinking water is already the number one cause of disease in the world today.
When people think of geology, they usually think of rocks and fossils. However, geology is actually a very large field of study. The knowledge of geologists ranges from rocks and fossils to the moon and other planets (Hammonds 7-8). Geologists use a variety of subjects in their work, but the sciences and math are the most important. Some of the sciences geologists study are physics and chemistry (12). English is also a subject that geologists use when communicating with other scientists, the media, and the public (12) . Because of these tasks, it is important for geologists to have a wide knowledge of these different subjects.
It might be easier to live a healthy life for many people, but for others it can be very challenging. I have tried to be healthy so many times, but I always fell off the wagon. For many days I would “feel” healthy, but in reality I was not the healthiest person mentally or physically. I knew that I had to change my behavior, and become healthier (or at least almost healthy) if I wanted to live a longer life. I began my journey by drinking more water, balancing my eating with exerting, all while trying to stay mentally well.
There are many types of pollution. The main types of pollution are water, air, soil, thermal, radioactive, noise, and light. The topic for this experiment is Water Pollution. Water Pollution became a problem in the 1900’s when water started being treated like sewage. Earth Day was founded by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson on April 22, 1970 because of 1900’s pollution. Water Pollution also affects humans and animals. There was a Cholera outbreak in 1854, before water pollution became a problem, and a Typhoid outbreak in New York from 1900 to 1915. There are multiple possible causes to Water Pollution. Humans let out chemicals into the environment, and when some of those chemicals
The Causes of Water Pollution Water pollution is very harmful to the environment and living things. Water pollution can come from many different sources. If the pollution comes from only one source, such as an oil spill, it is called point-source pollution. If it comes from many different sources, it is called nonpoint-source pollution. Most water pollution affects the immediate area surrounding the source, but there are some types of pollution, such as hazardous, that can affect areas miles away from the source.
Hydropower is taking the energy out of water flowing from a higher elevation to a lower one and converting it into electricity. Hydropower has been used as source for electricity for many years and is the leading renewable energy resource in America today. Hydropower is the most dependable and effective of all renewable power sources. “And today, about seven percent of all electricity is generated from hydropower” (DOE.org) The Tennessee Valley Authority is the nation’s largest federal, public power company. TVA also has fossil fuel, nuclear, and hydropower plants. “TVA maintains 29 conventional hydroelectric dams throughout the Tennessee River System and one pumped-storage facility for the production of electricity.” (tva.gov) “Together these plants produced about 13.9 million megawatt hours of electricity in 2004, enough electricity to power nearly one million homes for a year.” (tvakids.com)
Wastewater is the combination of water-carried or liquid wastes starting in the sanitary conveniences of dwellings, industrial or commercial facilities. In addition to this, surface water, groundwater and storm water may also be present. It is any water that has been badly affected in quality by anthropogenic influence. It contains waste from residential, industrial and commercial processes. Municipal water contains industrial wastewater, sewage and gray water. Gray water is the water from sinks and showers. Large industries also produce wastewater.
Less than 1% of the water supply on earth can be used as drinking water.