Comment by Espressosaurus
2 years ago
Yes. We are mining water. While notionally replenishable, we are withdrawing from the water table in many areas (I'm familiar with California) so much faster than the replenishment rate that the aquifer is collapsing, meaning it will never be able to hold the water it used to anymore.
This photo [1] shows aquifer collapse and the resulting land subsidence well.
1. https://www.usgs.gov/mission-areas/water-resources/science/l...
Your link goes to the top of the USGS subsidence page.
Ok, but hydrologically speaking, the water goes _fucking somewhere_.
So if it isn’t our underground reservoirs, maybe it’s, I dunno, above-ground reservoirs?
For California, the bulk of the water is sprayed on plants and evaporates. A solid 80% of the water used by humans goes to agriculture. The plants are shipped all over the world. In a very real sense, California agriculture is about mining water and then shipping it elsewhere.
For the remaining 20%, it gets used by industry (10%) and residences (10%), where some of it goes back into the ground because it's watering the grass, but the bulk of it gets sent down the drain, in some cases to be reclaimed and reused (toilet to tap sewage systems) or sent to drain the the ocean.
For other states the ratios are different, but California in particular is egregious in agriculture's abuse of the aquifers.