Scientists warn California, Texas and many Midwest states could run out of groundwater by 2050 – ‘causing food prices to rise’

America is in the midst of a water crisis as scientists have discovered that much of the country’s groundwater supply could be depleted by 2050.

Researchers at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory created scenarios that simulated groundwater extraction scenarios in the 21st century, finding that eight basins have up to a 98 percent chance of draining in the next 25 years.

That could be due to faster withdrawals for drinking, irrigation and other uses than what rain and snow can cause.

The at-risk systems, including the Missouri River and the Lower Mississippi River, provide water to more than 129 million Americans living in California, Texas, Montana and many Midwestern states.

Lead author of the study Hassan Niazi told DailyMail.com: ‘As water supplies become increasingly limited, rising water costs could flow across sectors, driving up food prices.’

U.S. reserves currently hold at least 33,000 trillion gallons of groundwater, water found underground in the cracks and spaces in the soil, sand, and rock, but the country pumps out about 80 billion gallons per day.

The Geological Survey said taking an excessive amount of money is likened to money being held in a bank account – ‘if you withdraw money faster than you deposit new money, you will eventually have problems replenishing the account.’

If the water table plummets, the water flows disappear and the earth can sink and collapse, damaging roads, buildings and other structures above ground.

‘Many previous studies have shown that as demand for groundwater increases, aquatic ecosystems may face greater stress, water pollution may spread, and the land above diminished aquifers may sink into the earth more frequently – a phenomenon known as land subsidence ‘ says Niazi.

‘The authors add that competing interests for water arise from many sectors: energy, manufacturing, agriculture, livestock, etc.

‘Each of these could face unforeseen stress due to increasing water demand within a region, which increases groundwater extraction.’

The California River was found to be near depletion with a 98 percent probability – the highest probability of any watershed

The team found that approximately 105 million people currently live in the water basins that are likely to experience a peak before 2050, and that another 24 million people live in the water basins that will experience a peak until 2100.

“Our future scenarios are exploratory, meaning they are ‘what-if’ assessments and do not necessarily ‘predict’ the future,” Niazi said.

“I like to interpret the outcomes through the plausibility lens, rather than through the likelihood or probability lens, but we can infer the plausibility of the peak outcome based on the agreement between the scenarios.”

In the early 20th century, officials across the U.S. began building dams to provide water to more farms and Americans.

“However, over the past fifty years there has been a shift toward the use of non-renewable groundwater, vast supplies of which (98 percent of Earth’s fresh liquid water) have accumulated beneath the Earth’s surface for long periods,” the published study. in Nature.

The at-risk systems, including the Missouri River (pictured) and the Lower Mississippi River, provide water to more than 129 million Americans living in California, Texas, Montana and many Midwestern states.

Based on the simulations, the team found that the Gulf Coast of Texas, home to 22 million people, has an 87.3 percent chance of depletion.

“Texas is losing groundwater at nearly twice the maximum sustained rate — and according to plans already under consideration by local management agencies, that rate is likely to increase in coming years unless officials change course,” according to researchers from Texas State University and the Environmental Defense Fund. (EDF).

Some Texans are already seeing the exhaustion and feeling the impact.

Dr. Robert Mace of EDF said in a statement: ‘In the Heuvelland the water level is dropping, water sources are dry and springs are disappearing.

“That’s a sign that things are going to happen in the state.”

The Missouri River, which supplies water to 12.3 million people, has a 94 percent chance of running dry, while the Arkansas White Red region — responsible for 11 million Americans — has a 93.6 percent risk.

The California River also appeared to be almost exhausted, with a 98 percent chance.

This system provides groundwater to more than 46 million people, requiring the extraction of underground water basins for years; nearly two-thirds of California’s more than 20,000 monitoring wells are below normal levels.

Niazi and his team also noted that Mexico’s Northwest Coast, responsible for six million people, has a 96 percent chance of running dry and the Lower Mississippi, which feeds 14 million people, has an 84.7 percent chance.

And finally, the Rio Grande River was predicted to have an 84.7 percent chance and the Lower Colorado River a 63.1 percent chance of drying up.

“Competing interests for water arise from many sectors: energy, manufacturing, agriculture, livestock, etc.,” Niazi said.

‘Each of these could face unforeseen stresses due to increasing water demand within a region, which increases groundwater extraction.’