2 thoughts on “Groundwater: “Mining” a Limited Resource”
Not mentioned, is that much groundwater being accessed is actually plutonic, as in ancient trapped water with no recharge at all. Once used, is Gone for ever!
Side note. Listed countries in trouble did did not include Australia which is incredibly vulnerable. This is because the resource, is now, Strictly regulated. For now. So it CAN be done.
Way back when I was taking hydrogeology classes, one of the case studies was an aquifer discovered in northern Mexico. People moved in and started doing irrigated farming. Unfortunately, it was an isolated one that wouldn’t recharge on human time scales, so they were in effect mining the water and building a farming community that wasn’t sustainable. As one of the lecturers pointed out, it’s OK to mine water for a purpose as long as you treat it as a finite resource.
Most useful aquifers can be recharged (Austin and San Antonio have limits for impervious cover in aquifer recharge zones). As with those California towns’ new projects* to dedicate some land for capturing multi-annual rainwater to recharge California aquifers, and the villages up in the Himalayas that started making water-capturing structures to store for the dry season, and the Bangladeshi’s drawing down groundwater which is replaced during monsoon season, and the African half-moon dikes that capture runoff, education and community awareness can make a positive difference in overcoming traditional practices that no longer work.
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*Which I first encountered on this blog.
Not mentioned, is that much groundwater being accessed is actually plutonic, as in ancient trapped water with no recharge at all. Once used, is Gone for ever!
Side note. Listed countries in trouble did did not include Australia which is incredibly vulnerable. This is because the resource, is now, Strictly regulated. For now. So it CAN be done.
Way back when I was taking hydrogeology classes, one of the case studies was an aquifer discovered in northern Mexico. People moved in and started doing irrigated farming. Unfortunately, it was an isolated one that wouldn’t recharge on human time scales, so they were in effect mining the water and building a farming community that wasn’t sustainable. As one of the lecturers pointed out, it’s OK to mine water for a purpose as long as you treat it as a finite resource.
Most useful aquifers can be recharged (Austin and San Antonio have limits for impervious cover in aquifer recharge zones). As with those California towns’ new projects* to dedicate some land for capturing multi-annual rainwater to recharge California aquifers, and the villages up in the Himalayas that started making water-capturing structures to store for the dry season, and the Bangladeshi’s drawing down groundwater which is replaced during monsoon season, and the African half-moon dikes that capture runoff, education and community awareness can make a positive difference in overcoming traditional practices that no longer work.
____________
*Which I first encountered on this blog.