Groundwater pumping is reducing the amount of water that flows through rivers and streams in the West.
Scientists have known for awhile that if you pump groundwater near a stream that stream will eventually drop. But Colorado School of Mines researcher Reed Maxwell says his new study goes broad, quantifying the effect of pumping across the country.
“What we found is that we have actually depleted streams quite a bit,” Maxwell said.
Maxwell and colleagues at the University of Arizona found that since the 1950s, groundwater pumping has caused some streams to decline up to 50 percent.
“There’s nothing inherently wrong with groundwater pumping. What we want to do is understand what is a long term sustainable amount of pumping,” he said.
Maxwell says declines are particularly stark in portions of the Colorado River basin and on the Great Plains.