The Ogallala Aquifer has supported agricultural needs in multiple states for decades, but the aquifer is being drained faster than it is being replenished.
The spotlight may have been on California this past summer, but groundwater reservoirs—often the back-up for surface water supplies during prolonged drought—are in decline across much of the southern United States. Meanwhile, people are using millions of gallons of water per day in regions dependent on groundwater aquifers
On the Rio Grande—historically the wellspring for more than five million people in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico—coping with scarcity has become a reality, and water management and use in the region may be a leading example of how to adapt to drier times
In a place routinely afflicted by drought, water managers in Tampa Bay use climate forecasts to ensure a water supply to people’s taps without sucking the region’s rivers, wetlands, and groundwater dry. The limits of their innovation might be tested in a future which could pose even more challenges to ensuring the oasis remains green.