In the western US, as population grows, and droughts continue to occur, confrontations over water will continue to increase. People in the humid, eastern US are unaware of the potential water problems in the west. Take for example the Ogallala Aquifer. The aquifer stretches from the Texas Panhandle northward to South Dakota and is the largest single water-bearing unit in North America covering 174,000 square miles. The Ogalla is not an underground lake nor an underground river as envisioned by many, but a gigantic sponge holding enough water to fill Lake Huron. The aquifer ranges in thickness from less than a foot to 1,300 feet and averages about 200 feet in most areas. The greatest volume of water in the Ogallala underlies the state of Nebraska where the aquifer actually bubbles to the surface in places. Presently, most of the water pumped from the Ogallala is used to irrigate crops, much of which is used to feed livestock. Use of the aquifer began at the turn of the century, and since World War II reliance on it has steadily increased. The withdrawal of this groundwater has now greatly surpassed the aquifer's rate of natural recharge. Some places overlying the aquifer have already exhausted their underground supply as a source of irrigation. You will now explore another classic example involving water rights, Mono Lake.
1. Where is Mono Lake? 2. What are some things about the lake water that are unusual? 3. When did the level of Mono Lake start to drop, and what caused it? 4. What are those strange looking rock towers, and how did they form?. 5. I would like you to search the World Wide Web for information on TWO other water diversion projects. They dont have to be in the US, and can include dams, canals and tunnels.
