Long‐Term Groundwater Depletion in the United States

Abstract

The volume of groundwater stored in the subsurface in the United States decreased by almost 1000 km3 during 1900-2008. The aquifer systems with the three largest volumes of storage depletion include the High Plains aquifer, the Mississippi Embayment section of the Gulf Coastal Plain aquifer system, and the Central Valley of California. Depletion rates accelerated during 1945-1960, averaging 13.6 km3/year during the last half of the century, and after 2000 increased again to about 24 km3/year. Depletion intensity is a new parameter, introduced here, to provide a more consistent basis for comparing storage depletion problems among various aquifers by factoring in time and areal extent of the aquifer. During 2001-2008, the Central Valley of California had the largest depletion intensity. Groundwater depletion in the United States can explain 1.4% of observed sea-level rise during the 108-year study period and 2.1% during 2001-2008. Groundwater depletion must be confronted on local and regional scales to help reduce demand (primarily in irrigated agriculture) and/or increase supply.

Groundwater intensive use and mining in south-eastern peninsular Spain: Hydrogeological, economic and social aspects

“…According with Konikow (2011), global groundwater depletion during 1900-2008 is estimated on ∼ 4,500 km3, and may explain 12.6 mm of sea level rise. There is fairly literature on recent regional estimates of groundwater depletion from GRACE (started in 2002), but scarce long-term data series are available and a more local scale data is needed for model calibration (Konikow, 2015). Spain occupies 14th place among the countries with higher rates of groundwater depletion (Wada et al, 2012), and the third in Europe.…”

Salinity of deep groundwater in California: Water quantity, quality, and protection

“…Typically, groundwater salinity increases with depth (16). Fresh groundwater resources occurring at relatively shallow depths ( 1,000 m) have been studied extensively in terms of groundwater availability (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22) and quality (23)(24)(25)(26). In California, water quality data from over 200,000 groundwater wells are available from the State Water Resources Control Board Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment Program (27).…”

The Soil Degradation Paradox: Compromising Our Resources When We Need Them the Most

“…The High Plains Aquifer in the central United States is one of the world's largest freshwater aquifers and the main source of irrigation and drinking water for the eight states that overlie it. Unsustainable pumping of the aquifer has resulted in water level declines of greater than 45 m in parts of Texas, New Mexico and Kansas [66]. In northern China, where the majority of the country's cereals, cotton, fruits and vegetables are grown, groundwater levels have declined at the rate of 0.5 to 3 m annually in the last three decades [67].…”