Matt Clark
AZ Central: Recent UA study confirms ...

“Groundwater pumping has caused stream flow in U.S. rivers to decline by as much as half over the last century, according to new research by a University of Arizona hydrologist that strengthens the connection between groundwater and surface water. 

The research confirms that groundwater losses, primarily due to pumping water from below the surface for agricultural and municipal uses, decrease the overall surface water supply and have caused some smaller streams to dry up. This has a downstream effect that influences water levels far beyond the groundwater pumping location.” 

Matt Clark
AZ Central: It's one of Arizona's most precious ...

“That’s one of the reasons why we’re losing the San Pedro. That’s one of the reasons why we’re going to lose the Verde. Because they keep permitting all these wells, knowing they’re connected to the surface water, but they don’t consider it,” Silver said. “This is the quandary that we’re having in Arizona right now, is we have no protection for our surface waters. Unless there is a direct diversion, our surface waters are screwed. And we have almost none left.”

Scientists share these concerns and say the state’s remaining riparian areas are at risk. Katharine Jacobs, director of the University of Arizona’s Center for Climate Adaptation Science and Solutions, said aquifers should be managed to protect riparian areas that depend on groundwater.

“There actually is very little protection for water-dependent natural environments in Arizona,” Jacobs said. “Arizona is really behind other states in that regard.”

Conservation groups have repeatedly advocated for legislation that would add protection for “ecological water” in streams, but for the past two years, these bills have died without being heard.

One court case that could have far-reaching effects focuses on the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area, which was established by Congress in 1988 and includes about 40 miles of the river from the U.S.-Mexico border to St. David.

Lawyers for the federal Bureau of Land Management are seeking a set quantity of groundwater and surface water that they say is needed for the conservation area. A Maricopa County Superior Court judge could issue a decision on these federal water rights sometime next year.

AZ Central: It's one of Arizona's most precious rivers. Hundreds of new wells may leave it running dry

“Non-Soon” Version 2.0 Has Arrived And It’s Bigger, Hotter And Drier Than Ever

As it turned out, though, neither the cooler nor the warmer SSTs appear to be to blame for the 2020 “non-soon,” which has contributed to record July heat. Rather, this year’s moisture-thief is a high-pressure dome that settled remorselessly atop the Southwest throughout the summer months so far.

“Typically, high pressure will oscillate from northern Mexico into the Four Corners and even northern (Utah and Colorado) through the summer,” said O’Malley. That northward expansion of high pressure allows the thicker moisture to surge north periodically into Arizona.

But this year? “Persistent low pressure along the West Coast has kept the high situated more often in southern Arizona and New Mexico,” said the NWS forecaster. As a result, “the best moisture has been trapped in northern Mexico.”

"Day Zero for the Colorado River" by Brian Richter

"Day Zero for the Colorado River" by Brian Richter

“America’s two largest reservoirs — Lake Mead and Lake Powell on the Colorado River — could both run of out water in just five years.

I really wish this was an April Fool’s joke. But instead, it’s a conclusion I came to after being asked by one of my University of Virginia students, “What would happen to those reservoirs if they had another bad string of really dry years?”

My distressing conclusion is based on the fact that in five short years, from 2000-2004, the two big reservoirs lost HALF of their capacity, due to heavy water extractions during a very dry string of years. When another string of dry years inevitably comes along, the water in the reservoirs will be gone.”

Sustainable Waters: Pay the Farmers Now

03 MAR 2020 by: BRIAN RICHTER

“There is a clear, immediately-available, well-proven option available to stave off catastrophic water crises in the West, it’s quite affordable, and there are thousands of farmers and ranchers ready and willing to implement it –> pay the farmers to temporarily fallow some portion of their farmland.”

AZ Central: Recent UA study confirms groundwater pumping is drying up Arizona rivers

“Groundwater pumping has caused stream flow in U.S. rivers to decline by as much as half over the last century, according to new research by a University of Arizona hydrologist that strengthens the connection between groundwater and surface water. 

The research confirms that groundwater losses, primarily due to pumping water from below the surface for agricultural and municipal uses, decrease the overall surface water supply and have caused some smaller streams to dry up. This has a downstream effect that influences water levels far beyond the groundwater pumping location.” 

AZ Central: It's one of Arizona's most precious rivers. Hundreds of new wells may leave it running dry

AZ Central: It's one of Arizona's most precious rivers. Hundreds of new wells may leave it running dry

“That’s one of the reasons why we’re losing the San Pedro. That’s one of the reasons why we’re going to lose the Verde. Because they keep permitting all these wells, knowing they’re connected to the surface water, but they don’t consider it,” Silver said. “This is the quandary that we’re having in Arizona right now, is we have no protection for our surface waters. Unless there is a direct diversion, our surface waters are screwed. And we have almost none left.”

Scientists share these concerns and say the state’s remaining riparian areas are at risk. Katharine Jacobs, director of the University of Arizona’s Center for Climate Adaptation Science and Solutions, said aquifers should be managed to protect riparian areas that depend on groundwater.

“There actually is very little protection for water-dependent natural environments in Arizona,” Jacobs said. “Arizona is really behind other states in that regard.”

Conservation groups have repeatedly advocated for legislation that would add protection for “ecological water” in streams, but for the past two years, these bills have died without being heard.

One court case that could have far-reaching effects focuses on the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area, which was established by Congress in 1988 and includes about 40 miles of the river from the U.S.-Mexico border to St. David.

Lawyers for the federal Bureau of Land Management are seeking a set quantity of groundwater and surface water that they say is needed for the conservation area. A Maricopa County Superior Court judge could issue a decision on these federal water rights sometime next year.

AZ Daily Star: Ancient aquifers are dropping as Tucson's suburbs pump groundwater

AZ Daily Star: Ancient aquifers are dropping as Tucson's suburbs pump groundwater

Literature promoting the SaddleBrooke Ranch development north of Oracle touts feature after feature — high Sonoran Desert terrain with beautiful mountain views, “multimillion-dollar country club amenities,” an 18-hole championship golf course and more.

The development, now roughly 1,000 homes strong with 5,600 total planned, also has delivered something not promoted — a falling water table.

“Literature promoting the SaddleBrooke Ranch development north of Oracle touts feature after feature — high Sonoran Desert terrain with beautiful mountain views, “multimillion-dollar country club amenities,” an 18-hole championship golf course and more. The development, now roughly 1,000 homes strong with 5,600 total planned, also has delivered something not promoted — a falling water table. Since 2009, the water level has dropped 7.3 feet a year in one of two SaddleBrooke Ranch wells and 1.7 feet a year in the other, says the Arizona Water Co., a private utility serving the development. This is one of many suburban developments surrounding Tucson where underground water tables are falling and are likely to fall much farther over the next century, state records show.”

Kowalski: Four Ways to Ensure Long-Term Water Security in the West

Kowalski: Four Ways to Ensure Long-Term Water Security in the West

“Lesson #2. We need to place a higher priority on protecting and acknowledging the environment. The health of the river itself is critically important – and the river should not have to settle for the leftovers in water-use negotiations. While the 2017 U.S. Mexico agreement included specific measures to restore the Colorado River Delta in Mexico, and the System Conservation Pilot Program incidentally and indirectly provided some environmental flow benefits in the upper basin, we need to do better. We must consider the environmental health of the river to be as important as the needs for hydro power or agricultural and municipal uses.”

We pump too much water out of the ground—and that’s killing our rivers

By 2050, thousands of rivers and streams worldwide could pass a critical ecological threshold, new research shows.

By Alejandra Borunda PUBLISHED October 2, 2019

“ . . . in recent decades humans have pumped trillions of gallons out of those underground reservoirs. The result, says research published Wednesday in Nature, is a “slow desiccation” of thousands of river ecosystems worldwide. Already, somewhere between 15 and 21 percent of watersheds that experience groundwater extraction have slipped past a critical ecological threshold, the authors say—and by 2050, that number could skyrocket to somewhere between 40 and 79 percent. That means hundreds of rivers and streams around the world would become so water-stressed that their flora and fauna would hit a danger point, says Inge de Graaf, the lead author of the study and a hydrologist at the University of Freiburg. “We can really consider this ecological effect like a ticking time bomb,” she says. “If we pump the groundwater now, we don’t see the impacts until like 10 years further or even longer. So what we do right now will impact our environment for many years to come.””

Groundwater Pumping in Last Century Contributed as much as 50% to Stream Flow Declines

groundwater_pumping.jpg

Groundwater pumping in the last century has contributed as much as 50% to stream flow declines in some US rivers. This is the first study to examine the impact of past groundwater pumping across the entire US. Previous research examined how groundwater pumping affected surface waters, but at smaller scales. The researchers compared what US surface waters would have been like without consumptive uses with changes since large-scale groundwater pumping began in the 1950s.

Laura E. Condon, Reed M. Maxwell. Simulating the sensitivity of evapotranspiration and streamflow to large-scale groundwater depletion. Science Advances, 2019; 5 (6): eaav4574 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aav4574