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Deep below the surface of the ground in one of the driest parts of the country, there is a looming problem: The water is running out — but not the kind that fills lakes, streams and reservoirs.
The amount of groundwater that has been pumped out of the Colorado River Basin since 2003 is enough to fill Lake Mead, researchers report in a study published earlier this week. Most of that water was used to irrigate fields of alfalfa and vegetables grown in the desert Southwest.
No one knows exactly how much is left, but the study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, shows an alarming rate of withdrawal of a vital water source for a region that could also see its supply of Colorado River water shrink.
"We're using it faster and faster," said Jay Famiglietti, an Arizona State University professor and the study's senior author.
In the past two decades, groundwater basins – or large, underground aquifers – lost more than twice the amount of water that was taken out of major surface reservoirs, Famiglietti's team found, like Mead and Lake Powell, which themselves have seen water levels crash.
Read more at the link in our bio.
📷: RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post/Getty Images
