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So, how do you refill an aquifer?

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Re: So, how do you refill an aquifer?

#61

Post by hosh »

genmud wrote: post #53
hosh wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have to. Arizona is at the bottom of the water rights agreement among the states drawing from the Colorado River. I see a lot of water harvesting structures here, often in the form of parks and greenways.

That’s actually not true, IIRC per capita we are actually better off than California and Nevada. Edit: Just looked it up and california gets about 5 million acre feet (maf), AZ gets about 2.8maf and Nevada only gets 0.3maf. So per capita, AZ is doing pretty well allocation-wise.

When I said, “bottom of the water rights”, I mean that the other states has senior water rights, not allocation per capita.

When there is not enough water, priority goes to those holding senior water rights.

(Complicating this is that various tribal nations have water rights senior to the states, and it is only now affecting allocations)

Re: So, how do you refill an aquifer?

#62

Post by SECProto »

genmud wrote: post #53
hosh wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have to. Arizona is at the bottom of the water rights agreement among the states drawing from the Colorado River. I see a lot of water harvesting structures here, often in the form of parks and greenways.

That’s actually not true, IIRC per capita we are actually better off than California and Nevada. Edit: Just looked it up and california gets about 5 million acre feet (maf), AZ gets about 2.8maf and Nevada only gets 0.3maf. So per capita, AZ is doing pretty well allocation-wise.

"The Water Knife" by Paolo Bacigalupi, though near-future speculative fiction, gives a pretty solid explanation of the issues. Junior rights don't matter much when there isn't enough water

Re: So, how do you refill an aquifer?

#63

Post by whiskeytuesday »

ChiCityRanger wrote: post #43
Permit wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's like she's trying to say "hey, we've got it bad but at least we're not as backwards as those mOsLeM countries". Nope, it’s not like that at all.

I could be wrong. It's likely that my characterization was not her intent. That said, even the most well meaning individual in the "west" has this implicit bias against the "non west" that it just gets everywhere and you see it everywhere.

You see it everywhere, I see it occasionally.

Re: So, how do you refill an aquifer?

#64

Post by toss1 »

mech422 wrote: post #19
Dig1t wrote: post #11

For further reading on aquifers I highly recommend https://www.edwardsaquifer.net It's run by a scientist in Texas and has an amazing wealth of information on the aquifers of Texas. I never thought I would find a subject like this interesting until I read this guy's site. Texas has been managing aquifers for a long time, there's a rich history behind their management, and reading about this stuff has been the only wa…

Phoenix is the same way. They do a really good job managing water supplies - for aquifers in particular (PHX sits on top of an underground lake) they use huge 'ponds' to let the water soak back into the aquifer.

>> They do a really good job managing water supplies - for aquifers in particular

Yes, except for some very bad deals allowing great tracts of land to be sold and leased at below-market rates to Saudi companies without charging or monitoring water use. They grow forage crops like alfalfa that are banned or restricted in Saudi because of excessive water requirements, and ship the crops back to their cattle there. It has made neighbors' wells run dry. They are effectively taking the water from the aquifer and shipping back to Saudi. For free. One of many articles here [0] (guess which political party made the deals).

[0] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/in-drought-stricken-ar...

Re: So, how do you refill an aquifer?

#65

Post by walleeee »

While initiatives like these are important, it is also critical to rethink agricultural practice. California grows a number of thirsty crops under conditions which make little ecological sense. Reform must address the legal framework, incentives for farmers, and consumer habits and expectations upstream, as it were.

Re: So, how do you refill an aquifer?

#66

Post by markdown »

candiddevmike wrote: post #20
ganoushoreilly wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Owning property with a pond has it's own issues. In many of those farms run off can be detrimental. We have a 3/4 an acre pond and while we don't farm anywhere near it, the few springs that feed it all touch a lot of farm lands. So far we're lucky, but just a quarter mile down the road, our neighbors have a pond that won't sustain life, which we suspect is due to runoff from their crops. There's also the issue of exc…

Would organic farming help here? Seems like there are studies [1] showing nitrate leaching is less with it. Probably reducing cattle/chicken counts too, as those shit pits are a big source of it. 1 - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01678...

The problem is that organic farming can only feed 2 and a half families. It's not a feasible way to live unless you already have the privilege of wealth or alternate sources of income.

Re: So, how do you refill an aquifer?

#67

Post by phkahler »

So farmers engineer land so that heavy rain will run off into streams, rivers, and ultimately cause flooding someplace in Iowa. This is of course to prevent flooding the fields and drowning crops. Then they pump ground water to water crops when there isn't enough rain. What we need is a way to store the runoff and get it into the ground. This would likely require some land use, and a bit of money to set up, for little immediate benefit.

Re: So, how do you refill an aquifer?

#68

Post by aaron695 »

EdJiang wrote: post #52
Dig1t wrote: post #11

For further reading on aquifers I highly recommend https://www.edwardsaquifer.net It's run by a scientist in Texas and has an amazing wealth of information on the aquifers of Texas. I never thought I would find a subject like this interesting until I read this guy's site. Texas has been managing aquifers for a long time, there's a rich history behind their management, and reading about this stuff has been the only wa…

There's also this guy who purchased a plot of land in the middle of nowhere, West Texas who's trying to terraform it into a forest. No idea how feasible it is, but interesting to watch! https://www.youtube.com/@dustupstexas

[dead]

Re: So, how do you refill an aquifer?

#69

Post by hinkley »

phkahler wrote: post #67

So farmers engineer land so that heavy rain will run off into streams, rivers, and ultimately cause flooding someplace in Iowa. This is of course to prevent flooding the fields and drowning crops. Then they pump ground water to water crops when there isn't enough rain. What we need is a way to store the runoff and get it into the ground. This would likely require some land use, and a bit of money to set up, for littl…

Soil carbon. It’s called soil carbon.
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