What is ogallala aquifer

The High Plains actually leads the entire Western Hemisphere in irrigation with fourteen million acres irrigated annually , primarily in Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas. Accordingly, farming accounts for an astounding ninety-four percent of groundwater use in the region. The resulting strain on the aquifer has been apparent for decades as recharge in the semiarid region has been unable to keep up with such a high demand.

Because of the continuous decline in the aquifer, some areas that traditionally relied on the aquifer for irrigation are now unable to do so. In Western Kansas, for example, water levels have declined by up to sixty percent in some areas as the gap between what is withdrawn for irrigation and what is recharged continues to expand. In northwest Texas, so much water has been pumped and so little recharged that irrigation has largely depleted the aquifer in the area.

A study from Kansas State University predicted that the aquifer would be seventy percent depleted by if irrigation practices do not change. However, the study further predicted that the aquifer could potentially last up to one hundred more years if all farmers in the region cut their use by twenty percent.

Aside from the devastating effects on agriculture, a study recently published by a team of stream ecologists concluded that depletions to the Ogallala Aquifer are also leading to fish extinctions in the region. Streams and rivers that depend on the aquifer are drying out after decades of over-pumping. The study found pumping to be associated with collapses of large-stream fish and the simultaneous expansion of small-stream fish.

This creates a catalyst for biotic homogenization, which in turn leads to less resilient aquatic communities and loss of ecosystem functions. The study predicts an additional loss of kilometers of stream by , as well as the continued replacement of large-stream fish by fish suited for smaller streams. The High Plains states are accustomed to periods of water shortages, and, accordingly, these states have all established the statutory or regulatory power to strictly control groundwater use.

However, while the High Plains states all have the legislative authority to regulate use of the Ogallala aquifer to ensure sustainable use, some states have been more or less hesitant to exercise those powers.

Those states that do not strictly regulate groundwater have instead chosen to leave conservation in part to the water users themselves. Two states in particular have highly diverged in their approach to regulating groundwater—Kansas and Nebraska. Each state has legislation in place allowing the government to force farmers to reduce water use, but while Nebraska has actively used that power, Kansas has been much more hesitant.

In exercising that power, the chief engineer can dramatically cut water applications for farmers and close applications for new water rights. The chief engineer has exercised that power several times in the last few decades, but Kansas state officials are often reluctant to do so.

We would like to see groups of irrigators come together and work out a solution. These plans are then subject to approval by the state. Once approved, the plan becomes legally binding. One group of farmers has set up a ninety-nine square mile conservation zone where they agreed to a twenty percent reduction in irrigation for five years. After four years, they have steadily achieved their twenty percent reduction rate while, significantly, not seeing a reduction in profits. Some of their success has also been due in part to the implementation of drip irrigation and more sophisticated irrigation water management.

While that is a step in the right direction, this group of farmers is still the only group that has submitted a plan in Kansas. This arrangement has proven its potential for success, but the question remains on whether it is scalable for the rest of the state.

The fact that only one group has formed is likely due to how difficult it is to create one—here, talks lasted three years before boundaries were agreed upon, and members of the group said they had to change their whole mindset and culture to come to an agreement. Workshops Workshops. Ogallala Aquifer interactive map Aquifer Facts Aquifer type: unconfined Area of aquifer: 36, square miles Proportion of aquifer with groundwater conservation districts: 86 percent Number of counties containing the aquifer: 49 Summary The Ogallala Aquifer is the largest aquifer in the United States and is a major aquifer of Texas underlying much of the High Plains region.

Texas Aquifers Study. Saturated thickness, groundwater volumes, and water level maps for the Ogallala Aquifer in Region A.

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.

And they did. What changed everything for Funk, now age 81, was a public meeting in the late s at Garden City Community College. State and federal geologists, who had been studying where all that water was coming from, announced grim findings.

Groundwater level has dropped feet or more, forcing many farmers to abandon their wells. 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.

Like coal or natural gas, groundwater is a valuable resource. The challenge is to stretch the life of the aquifer to benefit future generations of farmers and those who depend on their products. In Garden City, however, the severity of their circumstances is already forcing farmers to take action. They are grappling with how to maintain successful agricultural operations while relying on less and less water, an issue that water users throughout the region, and the world, must eventually face, Rude says.

Tapping the Aquifer On a hydrographic map, the Ogallala is a Rorschach inkblot that some describe as the shape of a mushroom, others the South American continent. Millions of years ago, when the southern Rocky Mountains were still spewing lava, rivers and streams cut channels that carried stony pieces of the mountains eastward.

Sediment eventually covered the area and filled in the ancient channels, creating vast plains. The water that permeates the buried gravel is mostly from the vanished rivers. It has been down there for at least three million years, percolating slowly in a saturated gravel bed that varies from more than 1, feet thick in the North to a few feet in the Southwest. Until recently, most of the region had no permanent settlements.

Native American tribes who used the open plains for seasonal hunting retreated to river valleys to pitch their tents. When Spanish conquistador Francisco Vazquez de Coronado came through in looking for the gold cities of Cibola, he marched his iron-clad men to the brink of exhaustion, never knowing that water to quench their near-maddening thirst lay mere yards beneath their boots.

Similarly, cattle drives in the s and s collapsed in a perfect storm of drought, overgrazing and falling meat prices. And early attempts at farming were plagued by soil erosion and cycles of drought that culminated in the s Dust Bowl. Industrial-scale extraction of the aquifer did not begin until after World War II. Diesel-powered pumps replaced windmills, increasing output from a few gallons a minute to hundreds.

Over the next 20 years the High Plains turned from brown to green. The number of irrigation wells in West Texas alone exploded from 1, in to more than 66, in But the miracle of new pumping technology was taking its toll below the prairie.

By water levels had dropped by an average of nearly 10 feet throughout the region. In the central and southern parts of the High Plains some declines exceeded feet. Concerned public officials turned to the U.

Geological Survey, which has studied the aquifer since the early s. What they found was alarming: yearly groundwater withdrawals quintupled between and In some places farmers were withdrawing four to six feet a year, while nature was putting back half an inch.

In the overdraft equaled the flow of the Colorado River. Today the Ogallala Aquifer is being depleted at an annual volume equivalent to 18 Colorado Rivers.