Nevada’s growing reliance on groundwater for irrigation and drinking water has led to significant declines in thousands of wells across the state, according to a recent study.

The study, published in Hydrological Process , analyzed data from about 6,500 wells across Nevada and found that about 40% had significant declines over the last three decades amid intensifying drought and rising water demand – a decline that is expected to put groundwater dependent ecosystems in the state at serious risk.

“That was a little surprising, we didn’t realize it was to that extent,” said Laurel Saito, water strategy director for The Nature Conservancy in Nevada and lead author of the study.

Only about 15% of wells analyzed had increasing water level trends over that same time period.

In Nevada abou

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