Evening star., 1953-07-03
Nation May Run Short
Of Water in 50 Years
Ground Reserves Depleted
Foster Than Replacement
By Thomos R. Henry

The United States may run seriously
short of water in the next half century.
It's present population of more than
$50 million consumes water, for all
purposes, at a rate variously estimated
at from 10 billion to 200 billion gallons
q day. A population of close to 200
million can be expected by 1875. with
proportionately heavier demand for
water resources which constantly are
declining.
This is the warning of DR.. Robert
c. Cook, director of the Population
Reference Bureau here.
Some 4.3 trillion gallons of water"
DR.. Cook says. fall as rain each day
on this vast country. About 3 trillion
gallons Immediately evaporate into the
atmosphere, to come as rain another
day. The remaining 1.3 trillion gallons
would furnish the average flow tor
about three Mississippis. This is more
than enough water for everybody. But
If these trillion gallons were to run
unchecked down the hills into streams
and rivers, the land would be quickly
gutted. floods would take over the
rivers. and river bottoms would be
buried in silt. Surface water sources
would be rendered UNIT for use and
the ground water reservoir would
shrink. There would be muddy water
everywhere. but not drop At to drink.
Capacity Is Enormous.
THE capacity Of our ground water
reservoir Is enormous. The greatest
reserve Of surface water is the Great
Lakes. They contain about two and a
nalf years OF the total rainfall of the
entire Nation, less evaporation. Yet
before extensive pumping began, the
ground reserve contained more water
than the Great Lakes. Now the min
ing OF this ground water has reached
the danger point in some parts OF the
United States. In the high plains
region Of Southern Texas, for example.
water is being drawn from the ground
at 20 times the rate of replacement.
Depletion of ground water has jeopar-
olzed the operation OF industrial plants
In the Ohio Valley. It is resulting in
the Seeplng OF sea water into wells on
Long Island and other places along the
Eastern Seaboard."
Whether this ground water reserve
can be kept high enough to meet the
needs OF a rapidly growing population,
DR.. Cook says, depends on how farms
are titled and how adequately the
ground cover of forests and grasslands
is maintained. Just now the prospects
are not promising.
Until a century, ago." he says,
''primeval forests maintained the ground
water reserves of the United States at
high level. But to the pioneer the
forest was an enemy to be destroyed.
This pioneer attitude persists today,
as witness what happens when a bull
dozer moves into a forest area to open
a subdivision.
Jobs Linked to Water.
"A person working in a factory in
Oklahoma or Denver would never think
that the permanence of his job is re-
lated to the way our national forests
and grazing lands are utilized, but in
the balance the link is clear.
If the forests should be pushed back
to open up grazing lands or if the mil
lions of acres of graSSlands now admin
iStered by the Government should be
more heavily grazed, precious ground
water over the years could be so re-
duced that the industrial plants of the
great plains and the far West would
be literally high and dry. Farther west,
rivers have been carried over noun
tains to furnish water to arid cities.
But what will happen should these
rivers go dry?"