Tag: irrigation
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Water use in the USA, 2015
Although thermoelectric and irrigation are the dominant categories nationally, the county breakdown reveals regional variation. In the map below, you can see all categories for each county at once. While you can still see that irrigation and thermoelectric are the largest, there is a striking contrast between the East — where thermoelectric is dominant —…
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The Valley floor is sinking, and it’s crippling California’s ability to deliver water
Completed during Harry Truman’s presidency, the Friant-Kern Canal has been a workhorse in California’s elaborate man-made water-delivery network. It’s a low-tech concrete marvel that operates purely on gravity, capable of efficiently piping billions of gallons of water to cities and farms on a 152-mile journey along the east side of the fertile San Joaquin Valley.…
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Beekeeping preserves wetlands in Algeria
The Wetlands Complex of Guerbès-Sanhadja in Algeria. With an area of 42,100 hectares and 40 million m3 of water reserves in its lakes and ponds, the Wetlands Complex of Guerbès-Sanhadja in Algeria was classified in 2001 as a site of international importance under the RAMSAR Convention. Wetlands act as natural sponges by absorbing and storing…
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New study examines impacts of fracking on water supplies worldwide
Credit: Rosa, et al. (2018) Using hydraulic fracturing to extract oil and natural gas from shale is a common technique used worldwide. Because the technique requires large amounts of water, however, it raises the question of whether it could lead to water shortages or competition with other water uses, especially agriculture. In a new paper…
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“Non-renewable” central Washington water source nearly run dry
Have you had a 10,000 year-old glass of water? The water that’s pumped up from the Columbia Basin’s deepest irrigation wells (some as deep as 2,500 feet) has been there for at least that long. Unfortunately, this prehistoric glass of water wouldn’t taste very good. Because of high pressure, water that deep is hot, about…
