TU Law Associate Professor Warigia Bowman is a nationally known expert in legal themes surrounding water, natural resources, energy, public policy and regulatory issues. The New York Times quoted Bowman this week in the newspaper’s comprehensive report on groundwater depletion. Following that, Democracy Now reached out to Bowman for an extensive interview to discuss how the United States’ aquifers are drying up.
“Aquifers and groundwater, they recharge incredibly slowly,” Bowman told the independent news outlet Democracy Now. “It can take millions of years to fill an aquifer, but they can be depleted, you know, in 50 years. But as surface water supplies, like rivers and streams and lakes, are depleted, farmers and industry are going to draw more from groundwater, and so that accelerates the depletion.”
Bowman went on to explain why this issue is so crucial to us and the planet. “Aquifers are critical for both the United States and the world, because we get so much of our drinking water from groundwater,” she said.
Groundwater depletion continues to be a dire problem facing the planet.
To learn more about Bowman’s scholarship visit her TU Law faculty page.