New York Times - A Tangle of Rules to Protect America’s Water Is Falling Short
“Regulations in some states, including Oklahoma, are guided by a principle of letting users extract groundwater at rates that exceed an aquifer’s ability to recharge. Some hydrologists call it groundwater “mining.””
Click here to read the article on The New York Times
The New York Times continues to publish important research on the state of America’s water resources through their powerful Uncharted Water articles, a series on the causes and consequences of America’s disappearing water.
The article investigates the patchwork of state laws governing the use of groundwater, and how the lack of comprehensive legislative guidelines is paving the way for a growing water supply crisis, especially in the face of climate change.
“There is no shortage of rules. In fact, states have created such a tangle of regulations that it can be difficult to understand how much water is being extracted from aquifers, complicating the efforts to protect them. Yet groundwater is more important than ever as climate change intensifies heat, drought and erratic rainfall, making rivers and streams less reliable as water sources.”
As climate change continues to put pressure on water resources, the Canada1Water project will continue to provide increasingly valuable insights into the long-term trends putting Canadian groundwater at risk. As noted by Elizabeth Cisar (quote below), best-in-class science on hydrology should be the driver behind water resources regulations and not political borders. And this is a key guiding principle that makes the Canada1Water project so impactful. By analyzing climate change impacts on integrated water resources at the continental scale, the C1W project is able lift hydrologic science above arbitrary divisions - both regulatory/political (i.e. across provincial and national borders) and conceptual (i.e. the imaginary distinction between groundwater and surface water resources).
Click here to read the article on The New York Times
“The Times asked all 50 states how they manage groundwater. States vary widely in the data that they collect and share.” Source: Dionne Searcey and Delger Erdenesanaa of the New York Times
“The Great Lakes Compact, created in 2008, is an agreement between eight states that regulates groundwater and surface water withdrawals across the Great Lakes basin. It’s an example of governance guided by the water itself, rather than by artificial boundaries on a map, said Elizabeth Cisar, who is director of the environment program at the Joyce Foundation, which provides grants on drinking water in the Great Lakes region. “Hydrology should drive the rules and regulations,” she said, “not state borders.””