Arizona Land Fissures
"It can't really be fixed because a fissure is impossible to fix. I like where I live, but nobody's going to buy it. It's a worthless house on a worthless piece of property."
What a hopeless situation that lady is in. And countless others in Arizona. With the number likely to grow if current practices continue.
Arizona's farmers have been pumping groundwater out of aquifers since 1900, and over-pumping has caused the ground levels to fall in 3,400 square miles of the state, geological mapping shows. Large fissures, some miles long, have opened up where land has collapsed.
Earth fissures can open overnight, usually after monsoon season in June through September, said Chris Wanamaker, assistant engineer in Pinal County, where most of the state's fissures are found.
In other parts of the state, free, unregulated underground water has lured large agricultural operations that drill deep wells and drain the aquifers, causing the land to collapse.
In Cochise County, southeast of Tucson, cattle operations and nut-tree farmers pump so much underground water that the land has deflated by more than 10 feet since 1969.
(https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2020/04/30/Land-fissures-falling-earth-levels-feared-with-new-Arizona-water-rules/7591588108728/)
I cannot imagine what it would be like to wake up at my Arizona retirement home (theoretical, of course), head to the front porch with my Diet Mt. Dew on a beautiful sunny morning, and look out to see a huge fissure running thru the yard...... inches away from swallowing my Jeep (again, theoretical).
Uggggh!
Grace & Peace & Love to you all -
Matt
What a hopeless situation that lady is in. And countless others in Arizona. With the number likely to grow if current practices continue.
Arizona's farmers have been pumping groundwater out of aquifers since 1900, and over-pumping has caused the ground levels to fall in 3,400 square miles of the state, geological mapping shows. Large fissures, some miles long, have opened up where land has collapsed.
Earth fissures can open overnight, usually after monsoon season in June through September, said Chris Wanamaker, assistant engineer in Pinal County, where most of the state's fissures are found.
In other parts of the state, free, unregulated underground water has lured large agricultural operations that drill deep wells and drain the aquifers, causing the land to collapse.
In Cochise County, southeast of Tucson, cattle operations and nut-tree farmers pump so much underground water that the land has deflated by more than 10 feet since 1969.
(https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2020/04/30/Land-fissures-falling-earth-levels-feared-with-new-Arizona-water-rules/7591588108728/)
I cannot imagine what it would be like to wake up at my Arizona retirement home (theoretical, of course), head to the front porch with my Diet Mt. Dew on a beautiful sunny morning, and look out to see a huge fissure running thru the yard...... inches away from swallowing my Jeep (again, theoretical).
Uggggh!
Grace & Peace & Love to you all -
Matt
