Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Contamination
Alongwithrainwater,chemical fertilizers andindustrial wastescanseepintothesoilandcontaminate
aquifers. One of the more horrific potential results is a
cancer cluster
— an area whose residents have
a disproportionately high incidence of some kind of cancer. These areas may occur because a factory
dumped carcinogenic wastes that seeped into an aquifer and eventually mixed with people's water
supply.
Depletion
Quite often, people consume water from aquifers much faster than nature replaces it. Nature was put-
ting water in aquifers long before people came along. But the amount of water in the bank can dimin-
ish quickly when people start drawing from that watery account in quantity.
Consider, for example, the Ogallala Aquifer, which underlies a considerable portion of the American
High Plains (see Figure 8-5). If you reside in the U.S., then that aquifer is vitally important to you
even if you live nowhere near it because a host of crops that feed people and fatten livestock are
growningreat quantities intheHighPlains withtheuseofirrigation water fromtheOgallala Aquifer.
And the water within it is being consumed much faster than is being replenished. Wells must be dug
deeper and deeper. Theoretically, one day, they may all dry up.
Figure 8-5:
The
Ogallala Aquifer.
Doom and gloom? Not necessarily. Advances in agriculture are making it possible to produce good
harvests with less water. Greater conservation also is possible, as is greater use of regional rivers for
