> The Lower Mississippi River Basin (LMRB) is an internationally-important region of intensive agricultural crop production that relies heavily on the underlying Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer (MRVAA) for irrigation. Extensive irrigation coupled with the region’s geology have led to significant aquifer decline.
> Groundwater depletion is a serious concern in Mississippi and worldwide. Agricultural crop production in the Mississippi Delta requires irrigation, and that water use has led to severe groundwater depletion. Converting crop land to forests through afforestation can conserve water resources, improve water quality, and mitigate river floods.
Aquifer != river. The overuse of aquifers is common knowledge. The commenter is making a narrow point about the river. I would like to see a response directly speaking to their concern, not something that is adjacent and common knowledge.
Yes. And as a point of reference for the scales involved:
> Since major groundwater pumping began in the late 1940s, overdraft from the High Plains Aquifer has amounted to 332,000,000 acre-feet (410 km3), 85% of the volume of Lake Erie. [1]
> The Mississippi River passes more than 240 million acre-feet annually at the proposed point of diversion, 30 miles south of Cairo, Ill. During the current flooding, more than 4 million acre-feet per day are flowing at that spot… [2]
The water in the Mississippi river could each year replace all 80 years of overpumping of the aquifer. So with 1-2% water diversion (like I said, not exhausting the river), you could easily substitute that volumetrically. For 5% you could massively irrigate the midwest.
These are truly massive rivers. People in the west don't understand how enormous they are compared to the Colorado and other western rivers.
> The Lower Mississippi River Basin (LMRB) is an internationally-important region of intensive agricultural crop production that relies heavily on the underlying Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer (MRVAA) for irrigation. Extensive irrigation coupled with the region’s geology have led to significant aquifer decline.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/news/highlights/mitigating-...
> Groundwater depletion is a serious concern in Mississippi and worldwide. Agricultural crop production in the Mississippi Delta requires irrigation, and that water use has led to severe groundwater depletion. Converting crop land to forests through afforestation can conserve water resources, improve water quality, and mitigate river floods.