why is California always in a drought crisis, but landlocked states in the Midwest are not?
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The Rocky Mountains do a great job of geographically separating the Mississippi River basin- which is the reason the landlocked states do not face droughts ulike California, which just has to pray for rain.
The Rocky Mountains do a great job of geographically separating the Mississippi River basin- which is the reason the landlocked states do not face droughts ulike California, which just has to pray for rain.
The Midwest is headed for a major widespread water crisis.
If you dig down into the earth, there are layers. Some are sandy or rocky, and some layers are clay.
As rain and snow-melt percolate down through the soil, they eventually hit a clay layer, and then the water spreads out flat. It’s called the “water table”.
This is why the pioneers could dig down to make a well. Hopefully it is close to the surface, and it helps if you are near a river.
The snow melting in Canada every summer flows down into rivers and lakes, and some of it refreshes a natural water aquifer called the Oglalla.
Pre-WWII, most midwestern farmers didn’t have electricity, so they could not install a water pump to pull up water from the aquifers below for irrigation.
Water pump irrigation transformed Midwestern farming, who no longer needed to depend on sporadic rains.
After a couple decades, farmers were pulling out more water than nature was putting back. However, the Oglalla was considered so large that we would easily find a solution “later”.
Now that the Oglalla is critically low, farmers are worried about future water restrictions from the federal government. So…they are trying to establish a “baseline” of water consumption by having a high volume used every year.
That way, if their water gets cut back 10%, they will still have a significant volume available.
They are hurting the system in order to benefit themselves.
To cross from Mexico to the US in certain places, people used to have to swim across the Rio Grande (*large river). Due to heavy farm irrigation, you can now walk across near the south end in the dry season.
The news doesn’t seem to care about it.
The Midwest is headed for a major widespread water crisis.
If you dig down into the earth, there are layers. Some are sandy or rocky, and some layers are clay.
As rain and snow-melt percolate down through the soil, they eventually hit a clay layer, and then the water spreads out flat. It’s called the “water table”.
This is why the pioneers could dig down to make a well. Hopefully it is close to the surface, and it helps if you are near a river.
The snow melting in Canada every summer flows down into rivers and lakes, and some of it refreshes a natural water aquifer called the Oglalla.
Pre-WWII, most midwestern farmers didn’t have electricity, so they could not install a water pump to pull up water from the aquifers below for irrigation.
Water pump irrigation transformed Midwestern farming, who no longer needed to depend on sporadic rains.
After a couple decades, farmers were pulling out more water than nature was putting back. However, the Oglalla was considered so large that we would easily find a solution “later”.
Now that the Oglalla is critically low, farmers are worried about future water restrictions from the federal government. So…they are trying to establish a “baseline” of water consumption by having a high volume used every year.
That way, if their water gets cut back 10%, they will still have a significant volume available.
They are hurting the system in order to benefit themselves.
To cross from Mexico to the US in certain places, people used to have to swim across the Rio Grande (*large river). Due to heavy farm irrigation, you can now walk across near the south end in the dry season.
The news doesn’t seem to care about it.
The Midwest is headed for a major widespread water crisis.
If you dig down into the earth, there are layers. Some are sandy or rocky, and some layers are clay.
As rain and snow-melt percolate down through the soil, they eventually hit a clay layer, and then the water spreads out flat. It’s called the “water table”.
This is why the pioneers could dig down to make a well. Hopefully it is close to the surface, and it helps if you are near a river.
The snow melting in Canada every summer flows down into rivers and lakes, and some of it refreshes a natural water aquifer called the Oglalla.
Pre-WWII, most midwestern farmers didn’t have electricity, so they could not install a water pump to pull up water from the aquifers below for irrigation.
Water pump irrigation transformed Midwestern farming, who no longer needed to depend on sporadic rains.
After a couple decades, farmers were pulling out more water than nature was putting back. However, the Oglalla was considered so large that we would easily find a solution “later”.
Now that the Oglalla is critically low, farmers are worried about future water restrictions from the federal government. So…they are trying to establish a “baseline” of water consumption by having a high volume used every year.
That way, if their water gets cut back 10%, they will still have a significant volume available.
They are hurting the system in order to benefit themselves.
To cross from Mexico to the US in certain places, people used to have to swim across the Rio Grande (*large river). Due to heavy farm irrigation, you can now walk across near the south end in the dry season.
The news doesn’t seem to care about it.
Even the landlocked Midwestern states get locked in drought patterns. Iowa for instance is just starting to come out of a 3 year drought. We’ve been in and out of them for the last 20+ years. And really only certain parts (mainly central and southern) are coming out of it now.
You hear way more about in California, and probably rightly so as their struggles run much deeper than ours, but droughts do occur all over the place — and impact *everything*.
Even the landlocked Midwestern states get locked in drought patterns. Iowa for instance is just starting to come out of a 3 year drought. We’ve been in and out of them for the last 20+ years. And really only certain parts (mainly central and southern) are coming out of it now.
You hear way more about in California, and probably rightly so as their struggles run much deeper than ours, but droughts do occur all over the place — and impact *everything*.
Even the landlocked Midwestern states get locked in drought patterns. Iowa for instance is just starting to come out of a 3 year drought. We’ve been in and out of them for the last 20+ years. And really only certain parts (mainly central and southern) are coming out of it now.
You hear way more about in California, and probably rightly so as their struggles run much deeper than ours, but droughts do occur all over the place — and impact *everything*.
California is a desert and getting fresh drinking water from the ocean needs a lot of energy and it’s not good for the environment. They just dump the extra salt right back into the sea, making the area around the plant uninhabitable.
California is a desert and getting fresh drinking water from the ocean needs a lot of energy and it’s not good for the environment. They just dump the extra salt right back into the sea, making the area around the plant uninhabitable.
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