America’s Dependence on Groundwater: Market Segment Trends in a Changing Marketplace

Presented on Tuesday, December 15, 2015

The United States extracts 76 billion gallons per day of fresh groundwater -- the water filling the cracks and other openings in beds of rock and sand -- for public supply, private supply, irrigation, livestock, manufacturing, mining, thermoelectric power, and other purposes.

Irrigation is a major reason for the abundance of fresh produce and grains that benefit man.  Irrigation accounts for the largest use of groundwater in the U.S., about 65 percent of all that is pumped from the subsurface each day.   In 1900, the U.S. used only 2.2 billion gallons (bgd) of groundwater daily for agricultural irrigation from 17,000 wells.  Today, some 49.5 bgd of groundwater is used daily for U.S. irrigation from a growing number of nearly 476,000 wells.  Despite this, irrigation groundwater extraction volumes have decreased nearly 15 percent from 2000 levels.

However, throughout many of the western states relying heavily upon groundwater for irrigation, there are growing competing demands for the water to develop energy resources, sustain ecological systems, as well as to supply urban population centers.

This presentation examines the national trends in groundwater use, as well as some of the implications for groundwater use from shifting populations and competing demands for water.  A new database compiled by the National Ground Water Association will be presented.

Presenter:
Kevin McCray, CAE
National Ground Water Association, Westerville, OH
Kevin McCray, CAE, is the executive chief officer of NGWA. Prior to being named to this position in 1995, he served in a number of other roles with the Association, has written dozens of articles, authored or compiled six books for the groundwater industry, and has made countless presentations. McCray has also served on a number of water-related advisory groups, including the U.S. Water Resources Export Council, U.S. EPA/AWWA Comprehensive Integrated Resource Cooperative Blue Ribbon Panel, Kellogg Foundation Ground Water Education Consortium, Great Lakes Commission Ground Water Education Roundtable, and Ground Water Remediation Technology Analysis Center Advisory Board.
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