Massive Water Source Found Under Mexico City, Could Be 100-Year Supply

Hispanically Speaking News ^ | 1:08 pm EST, January 21, 2013

[ExxonPatrolUs]

A team of geologists has discovered a large aquifer far beneath Mexico City that could supply potable water to the capital for many decades and serve as a reserve basin in times of drought, the municipal government said Monday.

“It’s a deep aquifer of significant proportions, but they haven’t been quantified yet and the next step is to carry out the necessary studies to see its real potential for sustainable extraction,” Mexico City’s water systems director, Ramon Aguirre, said in a radio interview.

Although news accounts have said the aquifer could supply the capital’s water needs for a century, Aguirre did not confirm that estimate.

“That would be great,” Aguirre said, adding that the water basin is an important discovery because it could provide emergency supplies during droughts.

“Even if there’s more than 100 years of extractable water ... that doesn’t mean it’s enough to supply the city for more than 100 years. That difference needs to be pointed out,” the official said.

He also noted that development of this new reserve will not affect other Mexico City aquifers or lead to sinkholes because clay layers separate one water basin from another.

Mexico City has been gradually sinking for centuries because water is drawn from underground aquifers faster than it can be replenished by rainfall and other natural sources.

Aguirre said exploration work began 18 months ago and that up to three more years of studies will be needed to determine the aquifer’s yield capacity.

The project has an estimated price tag of as much as 500 million pesos ($39.3 million).

[ExxonPatrolUs]

I wonder if the building explosion was actually a sinkhole earthquake.

[Doogle]

water?....it’s called runoff.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Don't Drink The Water!

[ozzymandus]

But if you drink it, you’ll be sorry.

[rfp1234]

Jobs! Groundwater hydrologists and geologists will emigrate from California to Mexico, while their low-skilled workers will continue to flock northward to get Obamnesty.

[gleeaikin]

Good news from an incredibly populous city.

[moose07]

Wasn’t Mexico City built in a crater lake in the first place?

[JZoback]

If this was an large American city it would take 100 years to just get the permitting approved to get the water....

[T-Bird45]

If they manage it like PEMEX does their oil, it’ll soon be a 50-year supply.

[huldah1776]

2 questions:
What if this water doesn’t have the bacteria.
Will fracking cause North Dakota and Texas to sink? ;)

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Correct.

[X-spurt]

Actually it was a 25 year supply, then they recalculated using the Mexico standard “short-circuit raw sewage aquifer injection technology” to get it to last for 100 years.

[stylin19a]

story doesn't prove the headline.

“It’s a deep aquifer of significant proportions, but they haven’t been quantified

100 year is used as an arbitrary number for example purposes.

[Elsie]

Massive Water Source Found Under Mexico City, Could Be 100-Year Supply

DUH!... considering Mexico City's history!!

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Market in Tlatelolco by Diego Rivera

The city currently known as Mexico City was founded by the Mexica people, later known as the Aztecs, in 1325. The old Mexico city is now referred to as Tenochtitlan. The Mexica were one of the last of the Nahuatl-speaking peoples who migrated to this part of the Valley of Mexico after the fall of the Toltec Empire. Their presence was resisted by the peoples who were already in the valley, but the Mexica were able to establish a city on a small island on the western side of Lake Texcoco. The Mexica themselves had a story about how their city was founded, after being led to the island by their principal god, Huitzilopochtli. According to the story, the god indicated the site where they were to build their home with a sign - an eagle perched on a nopal cactus with a snake in its beak. Between 1325 and 1521, Tenochtitlan grew in size and strength, eventually dominating the other city-states around Lake Texcoco, and in the Valley of Mexico. When the Spaniards arrived, the Aztec Empire reached much of Mesoamerica, touching both the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean. Scholars estimate that between 200,000 and 250,000 people lived in Tenochtitlan in 1500, more than four times the population of London at that time