Half-Mile Crack Visible From Space Opens West Of Santa Fe At Groundwater Pumping Station

[hatrack]

It was about five years ago when people started to notice the fissure. A crack in the earth big enough to see from space stretches for a half-mile along the Rio Grande, marking the place where Santa Fe city wells pump water to the surface from the aquifer below.

As water is sucked away, the ground subsides, leaving a widening crevasse that has forever changed the landscape at this spot west of the city. Although it rebounds when wells are rested, as more water is pumped out and piped uphill to Santa Fe, the fissure grows.

So too, does the region's population, and its thirst for larger quantities of imported water. Officials are planning a water project they say will again transform riverside land known by the family name Buckman. In a move that will allow reduced pumping at a dozen-plus sites in the Buckman Well Field, the city and county intend to build a structure to draw surface water directly from the river.

The Buckman Direct Diversion will be the most expensive construction project ever built by Santa Fe's local government. It's supposed to be working by this time three summers from now. But hurdles remain, including the need for federal permits and the question of how to pay for $171 million worth of planned structures and their continued operation.

EDIT

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/68610.html

[Warpy]

1. City water here is from the aquifer a mile down

When I first moved here, it was called inexhaustible. Now they've realized it's finite. Water has been diverted from the San Juan River basin in the northwest part of the state to increase surface water for irrigation. I imagine we'll all be drinking it at some point.

The good thing is that lawn grass is now an endangered species around here. Even some of the golf courses are using artificial turf on the fairways.