  
Fossil Aquifers are a sensitive resource. Stored in deep pockets under heavy rock sediments, these aquifers take thousands of years to build -- and rebuild (or "recharge").
A Little History:
Since the development of industrialized agricultural pumping technologies, human beings have been able to access deep water supply sources. Of course, at the when time large scale farming began most everybody was excited about the increase in food production! Little did we know that there is only a limited amount of water present in each of these seemingly massive underground water systems and that once they're empty they're mighty hard to refill. The common assumption has been that these water supplies from the deep underground are endless, and that we can enjoy relatively worry-free living, forever. But conclusive research, from all over the world and particularly American universities and government agencies, demonstrates that these oldest of the underground "water tanks" are fragile.
Why are they considered so fragile?
Fossil Aquifers don't recharge easily or quickly -- to say the least. Water levels are accumulated over thousands, even tens of thousands of years of gradual seepage through layer after layer of bedrock. When we humans pump out a Fossil Aquifer today in order to grow grain for hot dog buns, we are literally pumping out rainfall from the age of the mastadon; 12,000 or more years ago. That water down there is 3 to 4xs older than the written word!
That water took a long time to get there and it's not coming back anytime soon.
Additionally, an imbalance of more than 5% in some of these systems can throw replenishment cycles into a depression of declining returns. Remember, surface water must drain through thousands of layers of porous rock in order to reach these "underground water tanks." Therefore, the natural replenishment cycles of Fossil Aquifers cannot keep up unless given thousands of years to work within the limits of the system. The resulting chaos makes it virtually impossible for a given system to re-balance itself. Subsequently, aquifers become vulnerable to contamination (from ocean salinization or industrial toxification) and ultimately extinction.
For example: According to the U.N., coastal aquifer areas in parts of Bangladesh and India, which have fed rice paddies for thousands of years - are now taking in salt water. The immediate result is the end of the rice crop as rice paddies are slowly saturated with salt water rather than fresh water. Rice cannot grow in salt water. Rice is the number one food staple in these areas.
Worst of all, when these massive problems start, they are incredibly difficult to correct, due to the size and interconnectedness of their scope. Another problem is desertification. We invite you to read next about an example of rapid desertification in China today:
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