But I thought everything bad was because of fracking?

Interesting article on how California is destroying its aquafers through overuse. It seems strange that the state that goes out of its way to lecture and push through environmental regulations to try to "help" the rest of the nation would let this happen in their own back yard...
http://shortsleeveandtieclub.com/un...lifornia-is-sinking-at-an-unprecedented-pace/

 

That's one thirsty state.
Wonder what all the illegals will do when the farms run out of cheap water?

 

Drink tequila?

 

Wait til the Ogallalla (sp?) aquifer dries up and we can't feed ourselves, much less the rest of the world.

 

We're growing a lot of corn to burn in our cars, I bet we could do without it.

 

Addition to Auminer:
It's not only California that's depleting their aquifers. I recently read a report written by a hydrologist with Texas Tech U (I think) where she was reporting that testing showed that the Oglala aquifer that runs from the Midland area all the way North into the Dakotas and covering all the plains states was destined to be too deep to pump from by 2050 to 2070. The depth of that aquifer runs from about 50 feet at Lubbock to about 800 feet in South Dakota. All those irrigation systems in West Texas are sucking the water our far faster that it recharges. It's like Calif, if water usage stopped now it would be 50 to 70 years before it recharged back to where it was 60 years ago.

 

It would be more like a couple of thousand years to get it back like it was 60 years ago.
10K years ago there was a mile thick ice sheet way down into North America. That's a lot of weight crushing down on the ground and the underlying strata, which is porous like a sponge. As the ice melted, it simultaneously released that crushing weight and a shit-ton of water, which the newly expanding sponge sucked up.
We don't have any melting glaciers to repeat that process despite what we were told in the 70s we would have by now.

 

Ethanol water to produce numbers have improved.
Stop reading your Sunday newspaper, though.

Water Comparisons
Water used in other industries:

Product Gallons of water
1 gal. of gasoline 2 to 2.5
1 gallon of ethanol 3
1 can of fruit 9.3
1 gallon of paint 13
1 lb of sugar 14
1 lb of plastic 24
1 lb of synthetic rubber 55
1 lb of cotton 101
1 Sunday newspaper 150
Source: U.S. Grains Council/U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

https://web.extension.illinois.edu/ethanol/wateruse.cfm

Agenda is still present in most discussion and data is always subjective so, additional links on the issue:

http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2011/03/21/ethanol’s-impacts-on-our-water-resources/

However, technology can only do so much. As the reliance grows more is need and that needs means increase deficiency.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/413002/measuring-corn-ethanols-thirst-for-water/

 

I had to do a research paper on the Ogallala for my geography class and the more I researched the worse the data got. As others have said we are basically screwing ourselves over. From 1950 until 2007 there was a net drain of 290 million acre feet or 345.3 billion cubic meters from the aquifer Overall about 23mm of water is added every year but we are pumping out 75-80mm of water in the same time. I think is 95 or 98% is used for irrigation(not including livestock) eventually the Midwest and California's Central Valley Aquifer will be tapped dry. One of the things California is experimenting with is instead of washing all of the water out to the ocean in flood season, farmers are flooding the fields and letting the water soak. One of the problems with that though is nitrates that dissolve and get introduced into the water table.

Even in grade school I remember this picture

 

Florida aquifers are being depleted, too. The springs that we all love in north florida are rapidly declining. I'm no tree hugger, but I don't support abuse and this concerns me, greatly

 

Here are some pretty good images to the nation's aquifers...
http://underbelly.us/map-of-north-american-aquifers.html

 

We need to remind ourselves that nothing is free. The drinking water supply, worldwide, is but a small percentage of the overall water content. From time to time, one may come across campaigns focused on reducing water consumption. And, while this is not a bad thing in its entirety, it generally misses the mark. The amount of fresh water that is required to produce the goods and services that have become our way of life.

In the past, when we have had discussions on environmental footprint, I have welcome challenges or comparison, for if I know one thing is that my water footprint is relatively small.
I do what I can to minimize without becoming a preacher on the subject. Again, it is my trump card when I confronted on matter or conservation and environment.

I really don't know how we tackle the matter that well over 90% of our fresh water consumption is a function of sustenance. But not of life itself but the life we entertain.

This is why I see so much contradiction when some preach equality (equity) and conservation in one sentence.

 

Oops, server not found.

 

Must be time for another rant...

Someone is just looking to make a buck on a natural occurrence.

Take the coming eclipse for example.
"Official" eclipse viewing glasses? Yeah, 'cause sunglasses ain't good enough and if you look at it with your naked eyes, you'll burn your retinas out and be blinded for life. WTH anyway, did you want to stare at it for hours, dipshit?
Having been a world traveler, I've seen a good share of solar/lunar occurrences...enough to view them as "no big deal - just another predictable, naturally occurring instance in a long chain of the same. I ain't blind yet and nature has not seen fit to adapt a defense against it for any other animals. Have you ever looked at the sun at dawn or dusk? How about high noon? Your eyes will tell you if it's too much. Just don't be an idiot and use a non-filtered telescope or binoculars.

What does that have to do with depleted aquifers?
You can't accurately gauge the rate of the depletion, or the means of natural replenishment. It's unpredictable, though still occurring. Let me sell you a deeper well or charge you more for the water that utility services provide...but wear your eclipse glasses so the price isn't viewable, or don't and burn your eyes out.

BTW, fracking is only bad for our water table in about 5% of the locations where it's otherwise viable.

 

Not to mention what coal mining did to the water. T Boone Pickens supposedly sold his oil holding and converted them to water.