Once the fourth-largest lake in the world by surface area, the Aral Sea was destroyed by irrigation efforts in the USSR and continuing irrigation by Russia and Kazakhstan. It and Lake Chad, among others, are visibly-disappearing lakes.
Ogallala Aquifer
A vast aquifer spanning the high plains, once treated as inexhaustible. In most places, rainfall replenishes the water reservoir an inch or so a year, and many farmers pump out a foot or more a year to water their crops. Because the aquifer is an underground resource, there's no easy way to know if it's dried up until your pump gulps air and your crops die.
Elephant Butte Reservoir
The largest reservoir in New Mexico, fed by the Rio Grande, and built in a spate of optimism in the 1910s, the reservoir is, as of September 2018, empty. I mean, three percent full. Part of the cause is low rainfall and snowpack from upstream (the Rio Grande is drying out entirely in northern New Mexico), and part of the cause is increased use. It doesn't matter generally, the effect is the same. The lake is empty. The article from the Las Cruces Times points out that of course it emptied: that's what reservoirs are supposed to do. They disburse in lean years what was saved in the wet. The lake is, regardless, empty, and it feels like such a fragile thing. Maybe reservoirs like this and Lake Meredith are like heartbeats of Nowhere, America. I think Elephant Butte is less important globally than the Aral sea or the Ogallala, but I know I intend on keeping up with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment