Trending Topics: Solar flare bill Chris Christie's Speedo Free Ride Feds Immigration vote

June 19, 2013

Mexico City: new aquifer may help water problem

BY: AP Staff Writer JANUARY 23, 2013 | MODIFIED: JANUARY 23, 2013 AT 10:31 PM
Leave a comment
Photo - People gather for a ceremony to unveil an aquifer found by an exploratory well in Mexico City, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013. City authorities announced the discovery of an aquifer more than a mile below ground that could provide enough water for at least some of the metropolitan area's 20 million residents but warned that many feasibility studies remain to be done. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
People gather for a ceremony to unveil an aquifer found by an exploratory well in Mexico City, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013. City authorities announced the discovery of an aquifer more than a mile below ground that could provide enough water for at least some of the metropolitan area's 20 million residents but warned that many feasibility studies remain to be done. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
Topics: World

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico City officials are launching a new, deep-drilling effort to tap into what may be a new aquifer about 6,560 feet (2,000 meters) underground.

The Mexican capital is built on the spongy soil of a former lake bed. So much water has been extracted from shallow near-surface wells that the city is sinking.

Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera visited the new drilling site Wednesday. He says more drilling is needed to explore the deep limestone strata and determine how much water is there.

The city also has to pump in water from outside sources to supply more than 21 million people living in the greater metropolitan area.

Paradoxically, the city is also plagued by periodic flooding because it sits in a mountain-ringed valley with no natural outlet.

View article comments Leave a comment

More from washingtonexaminer.com

Top 5 Most Read Stories

From the Weekly Standard

  • Frack to the Future

    By: Michael Warren

    Williston, N.D.

    Read More...

  • Downsize Ike

    By: Andrew Ferguson

    The beleaguered Eisenhower Memorial Commission holds its next public gathering later this month, and before its members duck-walk into the hearing room, huddled in a hoplite phalanx against a...

    Read More...

  • The Lesson of Kermit Gosnell

    By: John McCormack

    What was the lesson of the Kermit Gosnell trial? Since the Philadelphia doctor was convicted last month of murdering three born-alive infants, two competing viewpoints have emerged.

    Read More...