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 Lowering of the water table occurs because in order for water to be withdrawn from the ground, water must be pumped from a well that reaches below the water table.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
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
In the video series Water’s Journey: Hidden Rivers of Florida, the narrator and scientists discuss the connections between human society above ground and the quality of aquifers below ground. The first part of the video series discusses the preparation and introduction of the mission of Wes Skiles, Tom Morris, and Jill Heinerth. The video begins with discussing connections between human society above ground, and the quality of aquifers below ground and how water is such an important part. The narrator also defines Earth as a water planet, due to the fact that it is the most important resource and all living things depend on it. Then, the movie begins discussing Florida’s aquifers and the process of how water can travel through the aquifers
I intend to argue that the water crisis in Africa and its horrid details should be portrayed more in pop culture by exploring the ALS ice bucket challenge, the horrible living conditions caused by the water crisis and the diseases and death caused by it. I am well qualified to discuss the water crisis due to the fact that I have invested a lot of work researching it. I wrote a paper in high school about the water crisis and I presented an informative speech about this issue last semester. I am interested in pursuing the water crisis because I believe it is an enormous problem and that the majority of Americans overlook it. I feel inspired to pursue the topic in the hope that Americans will learn about the water crisis and donate to the organizations
Many environmental issues plague world leaders in developed and developing countries in the 21st century. Of these issues, many people dismiss the issue of decreasing fresh water supply in favour of other seemingly more pressing issues. However, numerous scientists and organizations around the world emphasize the urgency of this issue, as fresh water is essential for the survival of humans. Although the Earth is covered largely by oceans, in comparison to fresh water, salt water is not very useful in the daily lives of many people. Fresh water accounts for 3% of all the water present on Earth, and of this 3%, only one third is accessible for human consumption; in essence, only 0.007% of the Earth’s water is accessible for human use (“Freshwater
The few rivers and lakes that exist do not contain a sufficient supply of water to meet the demand of the populace. This requires the majority of the water that is supplied to come from groundwater. Ground water is a series of aquifers, springs, and wells that store water beneath the surface. These underground water resources take time to accumulate because they are filled by surface runoff that has to seep through pores and crevices in soil, sands, and rock. In arid climates it takes even longer to accumulate because of the lack of precipitation each year. At the current rate of ground water pumping the water that is being pumped out of aquifers and springs is greater than it is replenished naturally. With population expected to grow in Tucson and around Arizona the groundwater depletion will only continue to
There is one Question To whom Water does belongs to? Who is the owner of the water? And what kind of rights should people or country have to use water? What are the responsibilities should people have?
“Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global garbage cans” (Jacques-Yves Cousteau). Africa is a continent surrounded by water, yet many African villages suffer from lack of clean water. With the earth holding more than 7 billion people, water pollution is one of the major causes of human infection and death from such diseases. Because there are so many possible ways to become infected, many humans die from water pollution. In Africa, population is increasing so rapidly, it is forcing more people to live an unsafe life due to the unsanitary waters, such as the Nile River that surrounds them, affecting their education, health, and poverty. Charity: Water and UNICEF are two organizations trying to find a solution to this issue by eliminating and decreasing the amount of unsanitary water infecting the African people today.
Due to its inevitable exploitation by society, this resource eventually becomes exhausted, leading to what Hardin calls the tragedy of the commons. The groundwater supply perfectly represents a commons as Hardin defines it. According to the National Groundwater Association, groundwater is the world’s most extracted raw material with an estimated withdrawal rate of 982 km3/year, 60% of which is used for agriculture worldwide. In the United States, the High Plains Aquifer System turned the once dry Great Plains into arable and profitable farmland, and Midwestern farmers have depended on this aquifer for decades. In California, farmers rely on groundwater as a strategic reserve during years of drought.
The commotion revolving around bottled water has existed for some time now. Some people say that bottled water is the best option available, but have they submerged themselves in the facts about the other side? Have they submerged themselves into tap water? When people face the decision of drinking tap water or bottled water, most tend to turn to bottled water due to its convenience and taste, but there are deeper and more appealing motivations to desire tap water instead. Motivations such as a healthier choice, a fit environment, and stronger protection against harmful chemicals.
Water is a vital part for the function of organisms, as it is involved in the “energetics” of molecular interactions and conformational adaption of macromolecules in animal and plant cells, due to its structure, flexibility and several unique properties (Rand, 2004). In an organism’s cell, various types of water are present. They are known as bound, hydration, vicinal and bulk water. 95% of watery body fluid is composed of bulk water, since they function as “space filling medium”, which supports life and creates an aqueous medium for cellular reactions (Watterson, 1987).
Water is one of the most essential non-renewable natural resources on the Earth. Technically, an un-hydrated human being can live no more than three days. In the United States, people consume water mainly from tap water and bottle water. However, the consumption between these two sources is not even but lean to one side heavily. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, people consume from 240 to over 10000 times more per gallon for bottled water than they usually do for tap water. (NRDC) In addition, according to a survey from US National Library of Medicines, only 17% of the participants prefer to drink tap water exclusively.(US National Library) Compared to the bottled water which is shining like a superstar, tap water is like a diligent worker in the shade, unpopular but useful. The extremely unbalance of bottled water consumption implies that a commonly hold conception exists: bottle water is superior to tap water. In fact, scientific evidence proves that tap water is nothing different than bottle water. More importantly, the excessive consumption of bottled water is an irrational use of resources and creates severe environmental issues.
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
Water is the most important element to our ecology system. The human as a users need the water in their life and so do the flora and fauna also needs it. As we know the water come from the river but the users need the clear and clean water to use it daily. The good water come from the dam and reservoir. According to Amanda Briney, a dam is any barrier that hold back water and its also defines as a primarily used to save, manage, and prevent the flow of excess water into specific regions. When discussing about dams, another term often used is reservoir. A reservoir is a manmade lake that is primarily used for storing water, and it can also be defined as the specific bodies of water formed by the construction of a dam ( Briney,A). Woodward(2004-2005) claims that there are one or more reason why dams is built. Dam functionally to provide a supply of water for towns, cities and mining sites. For example, Warragamba Dam in Australia is the main water supply dam for the city of Sydney. Second, dams built to contain and store waste (tailing) from mines. There is a dam at Omai Tailings Dam, Guyana, South America which stored waste from a gold mining operation. Another function of dam is to generate electricity in hydro-electric power stations and most dams were functionally as a hydroelectric dam. Dam which can be example for this function is Itaipu Dam at Brazil. This dam is the largest hydroelectric power station in the world. Some other reason why dam is built is it works to provide a supply of water for the irrigation of crops. The Burrinjuck Dam at Australia is the example for this kind of dam and it was built as the main head water storage for the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area in New South Wales. Last but not lea...
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.