A new study has found that groundwater pumping is having a greater effect in changing levels in the Tucson Basin Aquifer than climate change.
The study found that in the last 30,000-years, groundwater recharge in the Tucson Basin has been pretty consistent.
But the researchers say water tables dropped by as much as 105-feet during dry periods since about the end of the last ice age. However, that is only half of the drop seen in the last 70 years due to groundwater depletion.
In fact, the study found that people are depleting water faster than even the wettest periods observed could restore the aquifer.
“Even if we were to go back to the end of the last ice age and have huge amounts of recharge, humans are extracting more groundwater out of the Tucson Basin Aquifer than would be naturally recharged," said study author Jennifer McIntosh, a hydrology and atmospheric science professor at the University of Arizona.
The authors say mapping the timeline of recharge will provide critical information to resource managers in the basin area.
