# Do governments re-fill underground aquifers?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-governments-re-fill-underground-aquifers/631610
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 15, 2012, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-governments-re-fill-underground-aquifers/631610 "2012-08-15T21:58:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-governments-re-fill-underground-aquifers/631610/21 "2012-08-17T00:52:24Z")
> [@aceplace57](#):
>
> I don’t have time to hunt up a cite. I have read that water in aquifers is very pure from filtering through the various sediment layers.
>
> Pumping river water into a aquifer could have unexpected consequences. It would need some study before trying it.
In Santa Clara county in CAlif most of the water comes from wells and the water is anything but pure. My advice to people is do not dring the water with out chewing it first. In the 50’s it was noticed that the valley floor was dropping because of water being removed from the aquifers. Various dams were build to catch the run off rain. Then through out the year water is released from the dams to peculation ponds where the water refills the aquifers. So it is being done, and has been done for years.
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### Author:  [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2012, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-governments-re-fill-underground-aquifers/631610/22 "2012-08-17T02:51:54Z")
Minneapolis, MN does this, sort of.
We get our water from the Missiwwippi River, and we have created several artificial lakes upstream, restrained by dams. So rainwater that runs into the river is trapped in these lakes, and while there, a ceretain amount of it will filter through to the aquifer instead of quickly flowing downstream. No idea how much this amounts to, but it has to be more than if the rainwater was just moving downstream.
(The actual purpose of these lake reservoirs is to maintain the supply of water for the municipal water system – when there is a severe drought, the City will give instructions for their dams to be lowered and let some of the water stored in those lakes out into the river. That lowers the lake level, and gets complaints from people who have cabins around the lake – most of them don’t even realize that the City of Minneapolis created/maintains that lake in the first place.)
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2012, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-governments-re-fill-underground-aquifers/631610/23 "2012-08-17T02:55:17Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#):
>
> Minneapolis, MN does this, sort of.
>
> We get our water from the Missiwwippi River, and we have created several artificial lakes upstream, restrained by dams. So rainwater that runs into the river is trapped in these lakes, and while there, a ceretain amount of it will filter through to the aquifer instead of quickly flowing downstream. No idea how much this amounts to, but it has to be more than if the rainwater was just moving downstream.
>
> (The actual purpose of these lake reservoirs is to maintain the supply of water for the municipal water system – when there is a severe drought, the City will give instructions for their dams to be lowered and let some of the water stored in those lakes out into the river. That lowers the lake level, and gets complaints from people who have cabins around the lake – most of them don’t even realize that the City of Minneapolis created/maintains that lake in the first place.)
Yeah, but pretty much every large metro area does this, don’t they? And they aren’t refilling the aquifers as a matter of conscious choice – it’s just happenstance that it works out that way, correct?
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### Author:  [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2012, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-governments-re-fill-underground-aquifers/631610/24 "2012-08-17T03:26:13Z")
Anaheim [recharges their aquifer](http://www.ocwd.com/Groundwater-Recharge/ca-34.aspx) from the Santa Ana River as well as using purified sewer water.
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### Author:  [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2012, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-governments-re-fill-underground-aquifers/631610/25 "2012-08-17T05:57:43Z")
> [@Snnipe\_70E](#):
>
> In the 50’s it was noticed that the valley floor was dropping because of water being removed from the aquifers.
This is the cause of the famous Aqua Alta, where spring and fall tides will flood San Marco square in Venice with up to a foot of water. Large industries in Mestre on the mainland were pumping out huge amounts of groundwater causing subsidence. This was halted decades ago, and the land is very very slowly rising again.
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### Author:  [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2012, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-governments-re-fill-underground-aquifers/631610/26 "2012-08-17T18:09:15Z")
> [@black\_rabbit](#):
>
> Or Brawndo. It’s what plants crave!
I came all the way to the pit, into this thread to drop this nugget of wisdom. Beaten by a rabbit.
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### Author:  [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-governments-re-fill-underground-aquifers/631610/27 "2012-08-17T19:36:34Z")
Arizona has the Central Arizona Project. (Finally you hear something good about my state!)
You can read about it and types of aquifer recharging here:
[http://www.cap-az.com/operations/rechargeprogram/rechargeinarizona.aspx](http://www.cap-az.com/operations/rechargeprogram/rechargeinarizona.aspx)
In addition there are small percolation basins to have excess water drain into local aquifers. Just across the street from my house is a basin that collects all of the water from the local neighborhood and makes it seep back into the ground. It also makes a good place for Spadefoot Toads to mate, so we get both thunder in the sky and on the ground during mating season.
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### Author:  [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2012, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-governments-re-fill-underground-aquifers/631610/28 "2012-08-18T16:16:05Z")
Diverting water from a river is all very well, but isn’t there at least one river in the U.S. that has so many demands made on it by urban centers along its route that it delivers virtually no water to the sea ?
Apologies if wrong .
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### Author:  [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2012, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-governments-re-fill-underground-aquifers/631610/29 "2012-08-18T16:38:54Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#):
>
> Diverting water from a river is all very well, but isn’t there at least one river in the U.S. that has so many demands made on it by urban centers along its route that it delivers virtually no water to the sea ?
>
> Apologies if wrong .
The Colorado? When it crosses the border at Mexico there’s almost nothing left?
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### Author:  [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2012, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-governments-re-fill-underground-aquifers/631610/30 "2012-08-18T20:00:38Z")
> [@md2000](#):
>
> The Colorado? When it crosses the border at Mexico there’s almost nothing left?
I think you could be right.
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### Author:  [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)
#### Post date: [August 25, 2012, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-governments-re-fill-underground-aquifers/631610/31 "2012-08-25T05:08:35Z")
> [@Snnipe\_70E](#):
>
> In Santa Clara county in CAlif most of the water comes from wells and the water is anything but pure. My advice to people is do not dring the water with out chewing it first.
Coming in late, but: you want people to chew water? I assume this is a typo, but what did you mean?
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