High plains fresh groundwater usage 2000

This is a list of some

aquifers An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characterist ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

An aquifer is a geologic formation, a group of formations, or a part of a formation that contains sufficient saturated permeable material to yield significant quantities of water to

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit ...

wells and springs.

List of notable aquifers

* Ogallala Aquifer of the central

is one of the world's great aquifers, but in places it is being rapidly depleted by growing municipal use, and continuing agricultural use. This huge aquifer, which underlies portions of eight states, contains primarily

fossil water Fossil water or paleowater is an ancient body of water that has been contained in some undisturbed space, typically groundwater in an aquifer, for millennia. Other types of fossil water can include subglacial lakes, such as Antarctica's Lake Vos ...

from the time of the last

glaciation A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate bet ...

. Annual recharge, in the more arid parts of the aquifer, is estimated to total only about 10 percent of annual withdrawals. * Floridan Aquifer underlies the entire state of Florida as well as southern portions of Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, and covers an area of 100,000 square miles. It developed millions of years ago during the late Paleocene to early Miocene periods, when Florida was underwater, and is one of the world's most productive aquifers. *

Edwards Aquifer The Edwards Aquifer is one of the most prolific artesian aquifers in the world. Located on the eastern edge of the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas, it is the source of drinking water for two million people, and is the primary water s ...

in Texas is important as a water supply aquifer and the source of major springs. This carbonate aquifer has historically been providing high quality water for nearly 2 million people, and even today, is completely full because of tremendous recharge from a number of area streams, rivers and

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

s. The primary risk to this resource is human development over the recharge areas. * Basin and Range Carbonate Aquifer, and known by many names, is an important and unique aquifer in that it covers several western states and basins. Groundwater flows through fractured

carbonate rock Carbonate rocks are a class of sedimentary rocks composed primarily of carbonate minerals. The two major types are limestone, which is composed of calcite or aragonite (different crystal forms of CaCO3), and dolomite rock (also known as dolosto ...

beneath basins and leads to many regional springs and water features, like

Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge is at the southern end of the Great Salt Lake Desert, part of the Great Basin in Juab County, Utah, United States. The Refuge is managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. As an oasis in the Grea ...

and the springs at

Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. During summer, it is the hottest place on Earth. Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the point of lowest elevation in Nort ...

. This has been studied in extensive projects like the

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

BARCASS report and is controversial due to water issues like that in Snake Valley,

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to its ...

. *

Snake River Aquifer The Snake River Aquifer is a large reservoir of groundwater underlying the Snake River Plain in the southern part of the U.S. state of Idaho. Most of the water in the aquifer comes from rain and melting snow that flows onto the plain from the Snak ...

Located in Southern Idaho this aquifer stretches almost to Yellowstone National Park on its Eastern edge all the way to Hell's Canyon along the Idaho Oregon border on the Western edge. Water from the aquifer is used to irrigate over 3 million acres of farmland in Southern Idaho as well as provide drinking water for many Southern Idaho communities. * Kirkwood–Cohansey Aquifer, is located under the

Pine Barrens (New Jersey) The New Jersey Pine Barrens, also known as the Pinelands or simply the Pines, is the largest remaining example of the Atlantic coastal pine barrens ecosystem, stretching across more than seven counties of New Jersey. Two other large, contiguous ...

of southern New Jersey, contains 17 trillion US gallons (64 km³) of some of the purest water in the United States. *

Mahomet Aquifer The Mahomet Aquifer is the most important aquifer in east-central Illinois. Composed of sand and gravel, it is part of the buried Mahomet Bedrock Valley. It underlies 15 counties and ranges from 50 to 200 feet (15 to 60 m) thick. It supplies over ...

supplies water to some 800,000 people in central Illinois and contains approximately four trillion US gallons (15 km³) of water. The Mahomet Aquifer Consortium was formed in 1998 to study the aquifer with hopes of ensuring the

water supply Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavors or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes. Public water supply systems are crucial to properly functioning societies. Th ...

and reducing potential user conflicts. *

San Diego Formation The San Diego Formation is a geologic formation in southwestern San Diego County in southern California (United States), and northwestern Baja California (México). Geology It is a coastal transitional marine and non-marine pebble and cobble ...

, an aquifer used for public water supply in

San Diego County, California San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the f ...

and

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. *

Turlock Basin The Turlock Basin is a sub-basin of the San Joaquin Valley groundwater basin which occupies approximately 13,700 total square miles, making it the largest groundwater basin in California. The Turlock Basin makes up 542 square miles (347,000 acres ...

, underlies the

San Joaquin River The San Joaquin River (; es, Río San Joaquín) is the longest river of Central California. The long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada, and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suis ...

in the

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; es, Valle de San Joaquín) is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River. It comprises seven ...

of central

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. One of the largest aquifers in the Western United States. * The state of Washington has numerous large aquifers, as shown i
this map
of the Hydrogeology of Washington State. *

Spokane Valley–Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer The Spokane Valley–Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer is an aquifer in the northwest United States, located in eastern Washington and northern Idaho. The aquifer is centralized under Spokane Valley and the Rathdrum Prairie, hence the name; it cont ...

covers in eastern Washington and Idaho. It provides drinking water for some 700,000 people. * Central Valley Basin of California, where originates a vast amount of US crops for both domestic consumption and export. An estimated 2,700 cubic kilometers of accessible "fresh" water remain when deep well sources included in the eight counties of the study, some of which may be polluted by oil activities, some of which may be briny, nevertheless it is larger than the 900–1000 cubic kilometers thought to have been present. In spite of apparent windfall, ground subsidence, unregulated drilling, water-hungry high-profit agriculture and prolonged drought remain major obstacles to sustainability. Over a hundred cubic kilometers are thought to have been permanently lost (compacted clays cannot reabsorb) since farming took off in the valley a century ago, some 10 cubic kilometers were being lost annually both years of 2012–2013 according to

GRACE Grace may refer to: Places United States * Grace, Idaho, a city * Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois * Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office * Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uninc ...

satellite measurements.

References

External links

Map of Principal Karst Aquifers of the United States
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aquifers In The United States * United States geography-related lists

List of notable aquifers

See also

References

External links