Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas-Lawrence. As
a result, some areas have been hard-hit economically because
farmers have had to turn to dry-land farming, which cuts crop
yields. “The aquifer is like a bank account that's going down!”
Whittemore adds.
Not only agriculture suffers from the drawdown. “Imagine
standing at a well with a bucket, then dropping that bucket, fi lling
it, and hoisting it up from one hundred feet compared with three
hundred feet,” says Whittemore. “You would be a lot more tired
from the three-hundred-foot level because it takes more energy.
It's the same with extracting water from the aquifer.” Eventually cit-
ies will have a harder time pumping groundwater. As the aquifer is
drained lower, it will become tougher, more expensive, and require
more energy to pump out the remaining water.
WATER REALITIES
The water crisis is global in scope. Worldwide, 1.1 billion
people don't have access to clean drinking water, and
about 1.6 million die as a result every year.
Battles over quantity and quality of water brew around
the world. Even the United States faces transboundary
battles with its neighbors to the south and north.
The world is an ecosystem. What happens in someone else's
backyard on the other side of the globe, whether it's related to
climate, water, or weather, can and does affect what happens
here.
Whatever causes climate change, it is a force that affects current
and future water supplies.
Even if climate change doesn't mean a change in total annual pre-
cipitation, changing weather patterns—earlier spring or less snow
and more rain, for example—affect the ability of the nation's
infrastructure to capture, store, and provide adequate water
supplies.
Earth's natural ability to replenish its water supply is called the
hydrologic, or water, cycle.
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