A team of researchers with the University of Oregon on Monday announced they have found a massive amount of water under the Cascade Mountains in Oregon. They estimate it could hold at least 81 cubic kilometers of water – or about three times the water in Lake Mead, the reservoir on the Colorado River that is held back by the Hoover Dam. … The team reported the findings in a paper published Jan. 13 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Most Oregonians rely on water that originates from the Cascades. For example, the McKenzie River, which supplies most of Eugene’s drinking water, begins high in the mountains at the spring-fed Clear Lake. But the discovery of this underground aquifer’s size was a surprise.