Huge aquifer that runs through 8 states quickly being tapped out
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/huge-aquifer-runs-through-8-states-quickly-being-tapped-out-8C11009320Nearly 70 percent of the groundwater stored in parts of the United States' High Plains Aquifer — a vast underground reservoir that stretches through eight states, from South Dakota to Texas, and supplies 30 percent of the nation's irrigated groundwater — could be used up within 50 years unless current water use is reduced, a new study finds.
If current irrigation trends continue unabated, 69 percent of the available groundwater will be drained in the next five decades, the researchers said in a study published online Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Using current trends in water usage as a guide, the researchers estimate that 3 percent of the aquifer's water was used up by 1960; 30 percent of the aquifer's water was drained by 2010; and a whopping 69 percent of the reservoir will likely be tapped by 2060. It would take an average of 500 to 1,300 years to completely refill the High Plains Aquifer, Steward added.
"This is a very nice study, but we really need to address droughts and socioeconomic issues, and other approaches to figure out the problem, beyond the technical," Scanlon said. "If we don't know what we're doing, are we just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?"
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I saw that on a bumper sticker once. 
Even on DU population control is a very touchy subject. Don't dare suggest that people should limit the number of children they have, & particularly don't suggest that government should enforce population control measures, or you'll be accused of advocating eugenics. I have no kids, so I don't have any skin in the game. If people want to be stupid & reproduce themselves out of a habitable planet, so be it. The pinnacle of creation, lol. Some bright individuals got us out of the cave, but as a collective, we have our head up our ass.
That's northeast Colorado, mostly Weld County; it overlaps the aquifer. The red dots are active fracking wells, the green dots are permitted sites. There are over 20K wells in the county. Each fracking well requires several MILLION gallons of water, and that water is rendered permanently toxic. Our farmers have been told to cut back on their planting, citizens are put on very restricted watering schedules. The frackers, not farmers, are given first bidding rights at water auctions in the state. Frackers maintain that their toxic injections don't leak into the aquifers, but the prospect of carcinogen-laced water is very real -- what they don't consume could still be rendered unpotable for an increasingly thirsty planet. Fracking is very much contributing to both depletion and poisoning of water supplies.
What the fuck? 
I live in a semi-arid state & the biz parks have acres of lawn & they water during the day, fuckers. Also, they don't check their sprinkler heads often enough & sometimes they spray into the street, often for weeks, before someone finally notices the brown grass.
