Tag: overpumping
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In a first, California cracks down on farms guzzling groundwater
Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images Regulators just imposed unprecedented fees on water usage in the state’s agricultural heartland. In much of the United States, groundwater extraction is unregulated and unlimited. There are few rules governing who can pump water from underground aquifers or how much they can take. This lack of regulation has…
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Groundwater levels are starting to decline across portions of California; here’s the areas of highest risk
Groundwater levels are on the decline worldwide and one of the areas seeing the biggest change is right here in our own backyard. A study in Journal Nature found groundwater levels are decreasing from the Sacramento Valley to the Central Valley at a rapid pace over the last four decades. Scott Jasechko, co-author of the…
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Bottled Water: The Private Equity Firm Tapping America’s Spring Water
Photo: Water pours out of a pipe beside one of the sites in the San Bernardino Mountains where the company BlueTriton Brands collects water for bottling. Photographer: Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images BlueTriton Brands owns Poland Spring, Arrowhead and other bottled water brands. As it tries to grow, experts worry sensitive springs, creeks and…
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One of Santa Cruz County’s largest water sources is ‘critically overdrafted’; fixes are on the way
A worker finishes installing the Pure Water Soquel purification facility’s start-and-stop unit. (Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz) More than 50,000 residents of Santa Cruz County are reliant on a single water source: the dwindling Mid-County Groundwater Basin, which the state deemed “critically overdrafted” nearly a decade ago. Now local agencies are embarking on efforts…
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Pumping groundwater, redistribution has changed Earth’s spin
H2O IQ editor note: this article cites the scientific paper covered in our preceding post. According to a recent study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, humans have caused the Earth to tilt approximately 80 centimeters (31.5 inches) eastward between 1993 and 2010 by pumping and relocating large amounts of groundwater. The study explores…
