The article this week covers an aspect of California's water crisis in the form of groundwater depletion. Cali gets about 60% of all its water needs from the aquifers underground and aren't replenishing them at a nearly quick enough rate. It's another one of those problems that is simply out of sight and out of mind. Even more today, during California's infamous drought it currently suffers, the aquifers are virtually non being filled at all. Once the resource runs dry it will take thousands of ears to fill them back up. It won't take long to use up the water either. Will many aquifers becoming contaminated, the options are becoming more and more limited for people choosing to live in these areas with no natural source of water.
In class we discussed events similar to these in which aquifers either run dry or become contaminated. Once an oil leak or fertilizer dump reaches an aquifer, it will never be pure again. This may not affect wildlife forever but in terms of human consumption it matters a great deal. Naturally fresh water is a finite resource but we treat it like it will be around forever. Even today I'm learning that the average American uses over 500 gallons of water a day. That's almost 100 ties more than a family in Africa has for a week.
A question I have is in regard to Canada. They have the most amount of freshwater (in the form of ice) out of any country in the world. Someday will they be able to sell freshwater as an export? Te resorts will have sand from Costa Rica, trees from Hawaii, and water from Canada. It sounds funny, but can that be our future?
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