{"id":28754,"date":"2017-12-11T15:31:53","date_gmt":"2017-12-11T20:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=28754"},"modified":"2017-12-11T15:31:53","modified_gmt":"2017-12-11T20:31:53","slug":"great-american-desert-threatens-to-swallow-eight-us-states-as-massive-aquifer-dries-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=28754","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Great American Desert\u2019 threatens to swallow eight US states as massive aquifer dries up"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u2018Great American Desert\u2019 threatens to swallow eight US states as massive aquifer dries up<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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The Ogallala aquifer is one of the world\u2019s largest underground bodies of water<\/a>, and many ecosystems and communities in the American West depend upon it \u2013 however the aquifer is in rapid decline due to over-exploitation of its resources. According to the Denver Post<\/a>, farmers in eight American states<\/a>(Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Wyoming and South Dakota) are putting strain on the aquifer by overdrawing water from beneath the soil they cultivate in a $35 billion dollar per year industry. If allowed to continue, this could threaten both the livelihood of farmers and the ecosystems of the West, which could be replaced by a \u2018Great American Desert.\u2019<\/p>\n

Because of the region\u2019s intensive farming practices<\/a>, agricultural wells are extracting water from the Ogallala aquifer significantly faster than it is being replenished. This trend appears to have accelerated in recent years. Federal data indicates that the aquifer contracted twice as fast in the past six years as it had in the previous sixty, with a significant impact on everyday water use in the West.\u00a0\u201cNow I never know, from one minute to the next, when I turn on a faucet or hydrant, whether there will be water or not,\u201d said Lois Scott, who lives on a family farm in Cope, Colorado<\/a>, in an interview with the Denver Post<\/a>. \u201cThe aquifer is being depleted.\u00a0This will truly become the Great American Desert.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related:\u00a0Dead Sea salt reveals drought on a scale never recorded \u2013 and it could happen again<\/a><\/p>\n

\"wheat,<\/a><\/p>\n

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As a result of the exploitation of the Ogallala, at least 358 miles of rivers and streams have dried up within a 200-square-mile area in Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska. If trends continued, an additional 177 miles of rivers and streams are expected to dry out by 2060.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Great American Desert\u2019 threatens to swallow eight US states as massive aquifer dries up The Ogallala aquifer is one of the world\u2019s largest underground bodies of water, and many ecosystems and communities in the American West depend upon it \u2013 however the aquifer is in rapid decline due to over-exploitation of its resources. According to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20,7253,17445,17446,2998,827,866],"class_list":["post-28754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-agriculture","tag-aquifer","tag-greg-beach","tag-inhabitat","tag-ogallala-aquifer","tag-united-states","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28755,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28754\/revisions\/28755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}