Much of America's prosperity depends on aquifers, which are failing from overuse, according to NYT report

Climate change contributes to aquifer failure.
(The New York Times illustration)

Part of America's beauty and bounty builds on the riches of its aquifers, which are now damaged and depleted, "revealing a crisis that threatens American prosperity," report Mira Rojanasakul, Christopher Flavelle, Blacki Migliozzi and Eli Murray of The New York Times. Their report is the first of a series on the country's disappearing water. "The Times analyzed water levels reported at tens of thousands of sites and found nearly half the sites have declined significantly over the past 40 years as more water has been pumped out than nature can replenish. . . . In the past decade, four of every 10 sites hit all-time lows. And last year was the worst yet."

Groundwater depletion is so extreme some sources may never return to their previous levels. "Many of the aquifers that supply 90% of the nation's water systems, and which have transformed vast stretches of America into some of the world's most bountiful farmland, are being severely depleted," the Times reports. The investigative team "conducted a months-long examination of groundwater depletion, interviewing more than 100 experts, traveling the country and creating a comprehensive database using millions of readings from monitoring sites. . . . . Huge industrial farms and sprawling cities are draining aquifers that could take centuries or millenniums to replenish themselves if they recover at all."

The crisis is broad and deep -- crisscrossing the nation in varying levels of water loss with no solution in sight. "Groundwater loss is hurting breadbasket states like Kansas, where the major aquifer beneath 2.6 million acres of land can no longer support industrial-scale agriculture. Corn yields have plummeted. If that decline were to spread, it could threaten America's status as a food superpower," the Times reports. "Fifteen hundred miles to the east, in New York State, overpumping is threatening drinking-water wells on Long Island, the birthplace of the modern American suburb and home to working-class towns as well as the Hamptons and their beachfront mansions."

"One of the biggest obstacles is that the depletion of this unseen yet essential natural resource is barely regulated," according to the report. To get at real groundwater data, investigators included "Readings from sophisticated satellites that can estimate groundwater changes from space by measuring subtle shifts in gravity. . . Recent data from those satellites, which are operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and funded by NASA, also show aquifers in decline. . . . Two major California and Arizona aquifers recently matched or exceeded their lowest levels since NASA began collecting data two decades ago."

Sandwiched between hotter temperatures caused by climate change and the crops needing more water to contend with the heat, "farmers and towns have an incentive to pump more groundwater to make up the difference," the Times reports. Warigia Bowman, a law professor and water expert at the University of Tulsa, told the Times: "From an objective standpoint, this is a crisis. . . .There will be parts of the U.S. that run out of drinking water."