One only has to view the world aquifers data from the graphics at the website by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, located at the California Institute of Technology, to see that the most vulnerable aquifers in United states are in California, Florida, Alabama, and Georgia. Underground water systems take up one third of planet Earth and the basins for aquafers are drying up because of human activity. Some aquifers are sufficient to maintain life, in areas with frequent rainfall and have smaller populations and ones that have adequate means of recharge, others are depleted so fast, the ground is sinking from water pumped from wells faster than the water can be restored. The lack of restoration time is the reason the land is sinking in those areas. In agriculture, when the water is used for irrigation, it is soaked up by plants, which hold the water inside, some of the water is evaporated as perspiration occurs, and some goes into the atmosphere. Very little returns to the groundwater system.
As the ground water is depleted from wells pumping the water out, the water table lowers. As the water table lowers, wells go dry. As wells dry up, new wells are drilled deeper. The new well is eventually pumped dry and the whole cycle continues. When water is pumped out of the ground, it is removed from the natural hydrological cycle. The groundwater system, when working properly, includes seepage into springs that turn into creeks, which flow into rivers, and feed the ocean. The hydrological cycle depends on a healthy environment to work properly. The unfortunate part of the entire loss of water in the world aquafers is the long term effects on all living things. Trees and other plant life depend on the water stored underground. All living things such as the animal kingdom, rely on the oxygen that trees and plants provide. The entire system is interdependent and needs humans to think long term about how they are effecting the planet.
References:
Groundwater depletion. (n.d.). Retrieved March 28, 2016, from http://water.usgs.gov/edu/gwdepletion.html
Study: Third of Big Groundwater Basins in Distress. (n.d.). Retrieved March 28, 2016, from http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4626
