The United States is in the midst of a water crisis, as scientists have found that most of the country’s groundwater supply could be depleted by 2050.
Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory created simulated groundwater extraction scenarios during the 21st century and found that eight basins have up to a 98 percent chance of emptying in the next 25 years.
This would be because extractions for drinking, irrigation and other uses are faster than what rain and snow cover can provide.
Systems at risk, including the Missouri River and Lower Mississippi River, supply water to more than 129 million Americans living in California, Texas, Montana and many Midwestern states.
Lead author of the study, Hassan Niazi, told DailyMail.com: “With water supplies becoming increasingly limited, rising water costs may affect all sectors, causing food prices to rise.” .
Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory created simulated groundwater extraction scenarios during the 21st century and found that eight basins have up to a 98 percent chance of emptying in the next 25 years.
America’s reserves currently hold at least 33,000 trillion gallons of groundwater, which is water found underground in the cracks and spaces of soil, sand, and rock, but the nation is pumping about 80 billion gallons per day.
The Geological Survey said that taking an excessive amount is compared to money kept in a bank account: “if you withdraw money at a faster rate than you deposit new money, you will eventually start to have problems with the supply of the account.”
With groundwater levels falling, streams would disappear and land could sink and collapse, damaging roads, buildings and other above-ground structures.
“Many previous studies have shown that as demand for groundwater increases, aquatic ecosystems could face greater stress, water pollution could spread, and land above diminished aquifers could sink more frequently, a phenomenon known as sinking of the land,” Niazi said.
‘The authors add that competing interests for water come from many sectors: energy, manufacturing, agriculture, livestock, etc.
“Each of them may face unforeseen stresses due to increasing demand for water within a region, leading to a resulting increase in groundwater extraction.”
The California River was found to be nearing depletion with a 98 percent probability, the highest probability of all the watersheds.
The team found that about 105 million people currently live in watersheds that are likely to peak before 2050, and an additional 24 million people live in watersheds that will peak until 2100.
“Our future scenarios are exploratory, meaning they are hypothetical assessments and do not necessarily ‘predict’ the future,” Niazi said.
“I like to interpret the results through the lens of plausibility, rather than the perspective of likelihood or probability, but we can infer the plausibility of the maximum outcome based on the agreement between the scenarios.”
In the early 20th century, officials began building dams across the United States to bring water to more farms and more Americans.
“However, in the last 50 years there has been a shift towards the use of non-renewable groundwater, of which large reserves (98 percent of the Earth’s fresh liquid water) have accumulated over long periods of time under the Earth’s surface,” reads the published study. in Nature.
Systems at risk, including the Missouri River (pictured) and the Lower Mississippi River, provide water to more than 129 million Americans living in California, Texas, Montana and many Midwestern states.
The team found that the Texas Gulf Coast, home to 22 million people, has an 87.3 percent chance of depletion based on simulations.
“Texas is losing groundwater at nearly twice the maximum sustained rate, and based on plans already pending with local management agencies, that rate is likely to increase in the coming years unless officials change course,” researchers said. from Texas State University and the Environmental Defense Fund. (FED).
Some Texans are already seeing the exhaustion and feeling the impact.
EDF’s Dr. Robert Mace said in a sentence: ‘In the Hill Country, water levels are dropping, wells are drying up and springs are disappearing.
“That’s a sign of what’s going to happen in the state.”
The Missouri River, which supplies water to 12.3 million people, has a 94 percent chance of draining, while the Red White region of Arkansas, responsible for 11 million Americans, has a 93.6 percent risk. .
It was also discovered that the California River was close to being depleted with a 98 percent chance.
This system provides groundwater to more than 46 million people, which has forced over-extraction from underground basins for years: nearly two-thirds of California’s more than 20,000 monitoring wells are below normal.
Niazi and his team also noted that Mexico’s northwest coast, responsible for six million people, has a 96 percent chance of emptying and the Lower Mississippi, which feeds 14 million, has an 84.7 percent chance.
And finally, the Rio Grande River was predicted to have an 84.7 percent chance and the lower Colorado River a 63.1 percent chance of drying up.
“Competing interests in water come from many sectors: energy, manufacturing, agriculture, livestock, etc.,” Niazi said.
“Each of them may face unforeseen stresses due to increasing demand for water within a region, leading to a resulting increase in groundwater extraction.”