Issues caused by pumping water Essay

Water is a precious resource that is valuable enough to be trucked around but even with profit margins it comes with a price and in the case of water we all pay the cost, but only a few are truly aware of what that cost is.
Half of the water we drink here in the U.S comes from underground aquifers. It was once thought that these aquifers was as plentiful as the air that we breath, but we are now coming to realize how scarce they are becoming.
The hydrologic cycle that provides freshwater to our rivers and lakes is being disrupted by groundwater pumping at a disastrous rate. Here in the United States there has been a dramatic increase in groundwater pumping in the past few decades where companies have taken stake into the profit margins by selling water at an exorbitant price. That price isn't necessarily what it costs to purchase water at the store but more so to do with the decimation of our water resources. For domestic purposes alone a study has shown that there was a significant increase in usage from 8 billion gallons per day in 1965 to 18.5 billion gallons per day in 1995. To put this in perspective that is the equivalent to sixty five gallons for every man, woman and child in this country and this is for 1995 twenty plus years ago!
Pumping water at an excessive rate has caused rivers, springs and lakes to dry up. It has caused the ground beneath our feet to collapse and wildlife such as fish and birds to suffer.
Water is the essence of life, without it life ceases to exist! Yet we take water for granted, turn on the tap and water flows for drinking and cooking. Turn on the hose and wash the car or water the garden, jump in the shower and wash the dirt off. We have been spoiled with excess.
Nowhere is the effort to conquer nature to suit human needs more evident here in the United States than in the role of the federal government in harnessing and exploiting the waters which is particularly evident here in the west. With the winter snowpack that we have here in Colorado it melts in the spring season to fill our rivers and streams. However these flows are not always available when they are needed which at times poses problems for our farms and cities. We create dams for water reservoirs which serve as storage facilities to harness water when it is needed such as in summer where the rivers and streams mentioned earlier are reduced to a trickle.
Dams take a huge budget to build and one thing I would like to point out is that the private sector during this boom of harnessing water took no interest in such undertakings because of the high risks involved. This is where the Army Core of Engineers came in to build what really was necessary for our way of life.