Thursday, August 14, 2008

Basin & Range aquifers 4th most heavily used in nation

The Basin and Range basin-fill aquifers that supply groundwater to most of the population of Arizona (and all of Nevada, parts of So. Calif, etc) constitute the 4th largest aquifer system in the U.S. [right, principal aquifer withdrawals for irrigation, public-supply, and self-supplied industrial uses; USGS C1323]

This comes from the new USGS Circular 1323 on "Ground-Water Availability in the United States"

[below, principal aquifers of the U.S. The Basin & Range basin-fill aquifers are labelled #1]
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4 comments:

  1. Silver Fox5:47 AM

    Thanks for the link to this water circular. An additional aquifer in the Basin and Range is #43, the Basin & Range carbonate aquifer, which is mostly in Nevada, but also extends into Utah, Idaho, and Arizona. I think it's this aquifer that Las Vegas is primarily interested in, but am not sure.

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  2. Anonymous5:53 PM

    Fascinating. Would you share your thoughts on the water crisis and population in AZ, CA, . . . ? Do you think it is necessary to get people to move from those areas?

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  3. Lee Allison7:21 PM

    Rather than "getting people to move" from those areas, I suspect that market forces will be the driver - with either businesses not able to maintain or create jobs, or the price and availability of water encouraging people to seek greener pastures.

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  4. Anonymous3:10 PM

    Would you share what you think of the other aquifers, such as above CA in Idaho or Washington? Are these also troubled?

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