How old is that water underground? Why the answer matters in the thirsty West
It’s not hard to find groundwater. “It’s everywhere,” said Kip Solomon, a geology and geophysics professor at the University of Utah. “There’s no place on earth where you can’t drill a well and hit groundwater.” Groundwater makes up a little more than 30% of the freshwater on earth, while nearly 70% is locked up in glaciers and icecaps. Only a tiny percentage of the planet’s freshwater supply is made up of freely flowing, surface level water. What can be difficult, Solomon said, is finding “water that is of good quality, that’s not too salty. And it’s harder to find water where you can pump out large quantities.” That makes understanding this critical resource all the more important — especially in the drought-stricken West where many communities, from Moab to Cedar City to the Coachella Valley, California, rely on underground aquifers.
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