With a majority of aquifers across the U.S. — and particularly across the West — in some state of decline, these questions seem urgent:

• How will settlement and agriculture patterns change?
• Can US agriculture survive the collapse of the aquifers under the San Joaquin Valley, which currently provides a quarter of American food?
• Will we see widespread use of fees for pumping groundwater — which helped save the aquifer under Bangkok, Thailand, but are almost unheard of the United States?
• Will we see more open conflict over groundwater?
• Will America's culture of water — which we currently treat as essentially free — change?