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The Ogallala aquifer: Saving a vital U.S. water source: The massive underground water source feeds the middle third of the country but is disappearing fast

Posted by: Maven on March 24, 2009 at 5:52 am

For those out there who see California agriculture as expendable need to take heed of this article, which highlights the drawdown of the Ogallala aquifer, source of water for much of the Midwestern’s agriculture. From the Scientific American:

On America’s high plains, crops in early summer stretch to the horizon: field after verdant field of corn, sorghum, soybeans, wheat and cotton. Framed by immense skies now blue, now scarlet-streaked, this 800-mile expanse of agriculture looks like it could go on forever.

It can’t.

The Ogallala Aquifer, the vast underground reservoir that gives life to these fields, is disappearing. In some places, the groundwater is already gone. This is the breadbasket of America—the region that supplies at least one fifth of the total annual U.S. agricultural harvest. If the aquifer goes dry, more than $20 billion worth of food and fiber will vanish from the world’s markets. And scientists say it will take natural processes 6,000 years to refill the reservoir.

The challenge of the Ogallala is how to manage human demands on the layer of water that sprawls underneath parts of eight states from South Dakota to Texas. As landowners strive to conserve what’s left, they face a tug-of-war between economic growth and declining natural resources. What is happening here—the problems and solutions—is a bellwether for the rest of the planet.

High Plains farmers were blissfully unaware a generation ago that a dilemma was already unfolding. In the early 1950s, when Rodger Funk started farming near Garden City, Kan., everyone believed the water was inexhaustible. “People were drilling wells,” he says. “You could pump all the water you wanted to pump.”

And they did. What changed everything for Funk, now age 81, was a public meeting in the late 1960s at Garden City Community College. State and federal geologists, who had been studying where all that water was coming from, announced grim findings. “They said it’s geologic water. When it’s gone, it’s gone,” Funk says. “I remember coming home and feeling so depressed.”

Today his community in southern Kansas, 180 miles west of Wichita, is one of the High Plains areas hardest hit by the aquifer’s decline. Groundwater level has dropped 150 feet or more, forcing many farmers to abandon their wells. The cause is obvious, says Mark Rude, executive director of the Southwest Kansas Groundwater Management District: overuse.

With a liquid treasure below their feet and a global market eager for their products, farmers here and across the region have made a Faustian bargain—giving up long-term conservation for short-term gain. To capitalize on economic opportunities, landowners are knowingly “mining” a finite resource.

Read more of this extensive article from the Scientific American by clicking here.

March 24, 2009 · Filed Under Agriculture, National water news

Comments

2 Responses to “The Ogallala aquifer: Saving a vital U.S. water source: The massive underground water source feeds the middle third of the country but is disappearing fast”

  1. WaterSource on March 24th, 2009 8:07 am

    The Ogallala is a designated ground water basin. It is designated by LAW to be non-tributary to surface streams and has been also determined to be non-rechargeable. The Ogallala is “mined” knowing that it has a predetermined life of a hundred years. Withdrawals from the Ogallala are allowed based on the number of acres owned overlying the aquifer. A calculation is deliberately made using the total number of acres, volume in the Ogallala and dividing by 100 to get the amount allowed per acre above the Ogallala to be withdrawn/allowed each year. When the Ogallala is gone, … its gone … and those who have depended upon it will be high and dry … hard to believe that those affected have not known this for years ( and they do) … their permitting process spells out the calculations and credits … for as long as the water lasts.

    Before everyone gets all leveraged about it, this concept is no different than oil, gold, natural gas or many other commodity throughout the world.

    Maybe someday, California in particular will come to realize the significance of a non-tributary Source of fresh water that can yeild a million acre feet of water EACH YEAR and cannot be depleted !

    WaterSource waterrdw@yahoo.com

  2. Harold Scharlau on March 29th, 2010 4:09 am

    I recently read that once an aquifer is over used the land above it will sink and the aquifer can never be replenished. Is this true and if so can you help me with information?

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