High and Dry: Meeting the Challenges of the World's Growing Dependence on GroundwaterWilliam M. Alley & Rosemarie Alley Yale University Press : 2017.ISBN: 9780300220384 In High and Dry , hydrologist William Alley and science writer Rosemary Alley encapsulate the crisis in a description of the US High Plains Aquifer, which spans eight states from South Dakota to Texas. “This virtual ocean of groundwater, which accumulated over thousands of years, is being used up in decades,” they write. In three ways, the book provides a deep and broad understanding of groundwater use and abuse, mostly in the United States but with some international scope.