what is the ogallala aquifer used forruth putnam the crucible

As the drought in the Texas High Plains continues to intensify, a unique partnership of producers and researchers is working diligently to find economically viable alternatives to the regions irrigation-dependent crop monocultures. The counties where depletion could mean the end of irrigated agriculture have also had some of the greatest water-level declines in the past four decades. What is the Ogallala Aquifer used for? | Homework.Study.com What are the characteristics of an aquifer? Surprisingly, little mention was At current rates of use, farming in that area is likely to peak by 2040 or so due to water depletion. When you start talking about cutbacks, you dont want to cut based only on acre-feet alone. The Effects of Irrigation and Climate on the High Plains Aquifer: A County-Level Econometric Analysis. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 55 (5): 10851101. The drawdown of the aquifer raises an important issue that permeates That's more daunting. Stock water for cattle. Its too many straws in too small of a cup.. What is the Ogallala Aquifer used for? | Quizlet But agricultural waste and pollution are damaging the entire Ogallala Aquifer right now. The worlds known aquifer. With the Ogallala Aquifer drying up, Kansas ponders limits to The monstrous task of adequately cutting irrigation water use to sustain the Ogallala Aquifer starts with first knowing exactly how much water is there. by analogy: societal responses to regional climatic change. It's now down to three. It relies more on irrigation than anywhere else in the state, and plans to restrict pumping there haven't gotten very far. Some models predict the Ogallala will be about 70% depleted within 50 years. Irrigation just made it more profitable. vulnerable. Its not an easy cat to skin. CONDOS: But as drought intensified this fall, the well began pumping up sand instead of clear water, and he shut it down for the last time. A number of efforts are underway to help save water in the Ogallala Aquifer for future generations. Pumping peaked in the 1980s. Cloud seeding survives today, though in fewer counties and recast as hail suppressionwhich uses the same techniques to bust up large hail stones. The change in water levels over time is shown on the map. Theyre just tickling the cusp of whats coming, Rogers says. SARE Outreach operates under cooperative agreements with the University of Maryland to develop and disseminate information about sustainable agriculture. The Ogallala Aquifer (shaded area) is in a state of overdraft owing to the current rate of water use. Are the policy measures implemented in response to the Ogallala Aquifer How much water should be withdrawn from the HPA? Ogallala Aquifer | Encyclopedia.com In an era of growing population and advancing drought, we cannot afford complacency in the face of creeping normalcy.. The Ogallala formation is the main rock unit of the High Plains Aquifer and is named after the town of Ogallala in southwestern Nebraska where the rock is exposed at the surface. The site is sponsored by AGCO Corporation and covers farming and the farm life our readers live, as well as love. Southwest Kansas and northwest Texas pump so much water and so little is recharged that the aquifer has been largely depleted. It also includes an excellent record of . The aquifer decline is larger than Lake Mead, which filled to capacity is roughly 28.9 million acre-feet. Irrigation for crops. Farmers have started to respond, with more than 100 new probes installed in the last year alone. One of the farmers at the hearing, Cameron Shea (ph), says many irrigators are still wary of any water limits. World War II reliance on it has steadily increased. Basso, B., Hyndman, D., & Kendall, A. The gap between what is withdrawn for irrigation and what is recharged is significant. At least 30 feet of saturated thickness is necessary for large-scale irrigation. should be addressed now when there is less pressure to decide one way or of it. DAVID CONDOS, BYLINE: Fly west over Kansas and you'll see the prairie transform into a patchwork of green circles, mile after mile of geometric crop fields spun into the near desert landscape by wells that tap water hidden beneath the dry surface. Watch the video to learn how researchers and producers are using creative and collaborative methods to develop new opportunities for agriculture in the Texas arid plains. Conservation is critical, but artificially recharging such an aquifer, even though it has to overcome sizeable hurdles, is a must. How long before the Great Plains runs out of water? Nowhere in the study is climate variability or climate change mentioned. But Katie Durham, who leads the local groundwater district, says it's a vital first step. Not quite. Fenichels study, which was published in the March 2016 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States (PNAS), showed that annual loss is based largely on ag production capacity, efforts to sustain irrigation supplies, and overall ag land and related asset values. So how much is all that water worth? For example, the suggested large-scale interbasin Even in water-rich Nebraska, overpumping the High Plains aquifer, also known as the Ogallala, is a problem. A pipeline leak would have been minor compared to the damage that chemically dependent agriculture causes. The study found that if farmers and other users could cut the amount of groundwater pumping by 20 percent immediately that is, the cuts that farmers in the northwest have proposed that could extend the life of the aquifer significantly. What is the largest aquifer in North America? the Great Plains region, as would the suggested impacts of global The counties where irrigated agriculture is threatened are: Bailey, Castro, Cochran, Hale, Hockley, Lamb, Lubbock, Lynn and Parmer. Theres so much variability in the aquifer.. The true test of this solution will come in drought years, when groundwater pumping for irrigation increases. They were no longer dependent strictly on rain. Land values rose immediately, launching the transformation of northwest Texas into one of the worlds most productive agricultural regions. Ogallala Aquifer. environmental change. The wondrous resource containing all that water was the Ogallala Aquifer. The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (2018 Farm Bill) includes provisions that address the unique circumstances and concerns of socially disadvantaged, beginning, limited resource, and veteran farmers and ranchers ("historically underserved producers"). We have examined groundwater dynamics at the aquifer level by estimating county-level impacts of irrigation and weather on aquifer levels, across the 208 counties that lie at least in part above the HPA2. Our research has previously estimated that irrigation water drawn from the HPA adds at least $2 billion worth of additional crops per year in Nebraska alone, and $3.5 billion across the entire HPA1. Losses to the aquifer between 2001 and 2011 equated to a third of its cumulative depletion during . The board recently drafted rules that would require producers to track and limit their use to help meet the district's 50-50 goal and stave off possible further regulation from Austin, if nothing were done. Farmers are depleting the Ogallala Aquifer because the government pays A deeply ironic reinforcement of right-wing misinformation, Biden faces a difficult but familiar political test on the Supreme Court, A Georgia teachers plight exposes the essence of anti-woke MAGA fury. climate variability and change were not taken into consideration. What contaminants are found in groundwater? In all, across the district's 16 counties, the aquifer has fallen about 40 feet, a decline of roughly 44.9 million acre-feet since 1969. Field technician supervisor Billy Barron uses . LEONARD: That day's coming. Opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline argued that this characteristic made that part of the aquifer particularly susceptible to contamination. Reporting and analysis from the Hill and the White House. That is exactly what happened on the Great Plains in the mid-20th century. In regions like west Kansas, the Ogallala is expected to go dry in 25 years or less. Julene Bair, the author of One Degree West: Reflections of a Plainsdaughter, is at work on a memoir. As Brett Walton reports in great detail here, Kansas has been talking about how to save water for years. Water from the Ogallala Aquifer used for irrigation. And polluted with pesticides and nitrogen fertilizers. --Farmers are turning to engineered corn to adapt to drought. major source of water for agricultural, municipal, and industrial http://snr.unl.edu/download/ research/projects/climateimpacts/2014ClimateChange. Some places overlying the aquifer have already exhausted The Keystone XL pipeline posed a potential threat to a limited region. Conservation is critical, but artificially recharging such an aquifer, even though it has to overcome sizeable hurdles, is a must. But it moves peak agriculture production from about 2040 to 2070, so it pushes the impact of lower water use into the future, Steward says. Saving what's left of the underground water used for large-scale - NPR Yet, variation in groundwater and surface water from year to year in different regions of the state means determining how much to cut back irrigation isnt all that simple, especially while farmers hope to attempt to sustain hard-won ag productivity. groundwater introduces an element of control by society over water BRIAN BOX: This field didn't receive any irrigation water. Climate was also not considered and Carbon Dioxide: Are Policy Responses Applicable? Initiatives and changing mindsets like those in Rogers GMD4 area of Kansas are making a difference, albeit a small one. This allows us to estimate the average response to uniform changes in irrigation and weather across the HPA. Texas farmers worry Ogallala Aquifer is running dry. You should too. See here for his story on Kansas depletions. "You just have to learn to do with less.". this groundwater has now greatly surpassed the aquifer's rate of natural myFarmLife.com is the online home of AGCO Corporation customer stories and content. Get access to this video and our entire Q&A library. With the nations environmentalists at their side, Nebraska landowners battled ferociously against the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have carried oil extracted from Canadian tar sands through the environmentally sensitive Nebraska Sand Hills. "You're still using water at a much faster rate than it's being recharged.". considering possible long-term costs, Both are concerned with water (one being demand, the other supply). 1 Garcia, Federico, Lilyan Fulginiti and Richard Perrin. What is found in the Great Artesian Basin? Mark Rude, who leads the local groundwater district, says strict rules to save the aquifer don't make sense if they come at the expense of the economy. Ogallala Aquifer - Wikipedia We had to change the culture. UNL web framework and quality assurance provided by the, Apply to the University of NebraskaLincoln, Give to the University of NebraskaLincoln, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Rural Economic and Community Vitality Certificate, Center for Ag Profitability Farm and Ranch Management Resources, Industrial Organization of the Agri-Food System, http://snr.unl.edu/download/ research/projects/climateimpacts/2014ClimateChange. "Understanding and assessing climate change University of NebraskaLincoln implications for Nebraska. In: A synthesis report to support decision making and natural resource management in a changing climate. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. moisture in the region would be reduced, as would rainfall. At the current rate, some models predict the aquifer will be about 70% depleted within 50 years. A good example of this would be the recurrent Regional Climate Change: Forecasting by Analogy, Michael H. Glantz, The Ogallala aquifer is one of the major aquifers in Oklahoma, underlying the Panhandle and parts of the northwest regions. An acre-foot of water is used to describe large water resources such as river flows and reservoirs. Aquifers | GeoKansas This would require a drastic reduction of corn and cattle production. How concerned should national Across the Great Plains region,farmers have been experimenting with water conservation practices,such ascrop rotation,as well as more-efficient watering techniques likecenter pivotor drip irrigation. Yet, at the same time, most hope to sustain the ag production that has been critical to the regions economy. The Ogallala Aquifer underlies approximately 225,000 square miles in the Great Plains region, particularly in the High Plains of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska. The 1958-59 Travelers Insurance study looked at the prospects the same degree of crisis. See the related SARE grants: This site is maintained by SARE Outreach for the SARE program and is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award No. some of the most vulnerable areas should be taken out of cultivation and The aquifer is over-appropriated. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. It was formed millions of years ago from the erosion of the Rocky Mountains and now traverses through portions of eight statesColorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma . (2013). With a warming, soil If you reduce the water use by 20% today, it basically takes the yields back to where they were 15 years ago in terms of crop production. depletion applicable to changes in regional water supplies that may Cloud-seeding pilots were chasing away clouds with their flares and dry ice, the farmers claimed. Torluemke turned off his center-pivot irrigation sprinkler last year on June 4. If the rate of decline is surprising to some, it's not to farmers who know all too well the Ogallala is rapidly depleting. That explains, in large part, why levels of the Ogallala were depleted by an estimated 300 feet in some areas since the 1940s. CONDOS: Under the plan, a local board, not the state, would make water conservation decisions. In some places, the groundwater is already gone. Two years ago, farmers in a county near their proposed new limits cut their irrigation by 25%. The way Griffith sees it, the land and the water beneath it aren't just his. However, regional changes in climate of the The entire system underlies about 450,000 square kilometers (174,000 square miles) of eight states. By saving water today, youre also providing more time for the people who develop the crop irrigation and genetics technologies involved in increasing water-use efficiency, says K-States Steward. Sixteen acres of the gravel are stored near Slaton, Texas. It is not without controversy. CAMERON SHEA: It has to be done smartly. And, large pockets in most of the district's counties, including Deaf Smith, Randall, Swisher, Bailey, Lamb, Hale, Floyd, Cochran, Hockley, Lubbock and Lynn, already show the aquifer has dropped below 30 feet, the minimum depth necessary to sustain large-volume irrigation. The Ogallala Aquifer extends for roughly 175,000 square miles under many of the Great Plains states of the U.S. Its going to work if we can all just stay on the horse.. it was recommended that better land use practices be pursued and that Use of the aquifer began at the turn of the century, and since Bathke, et al., (2014) do suggest that for Nebraska, plausible changes might consist of as much as a 50% increase in hot temperatures and 25% less precipitation. That raises a question: How long before those areas in decline run out of groundwater for farming? Today, other factors have slowed down the rate of drawdown, such as On the other hand, if the area irrigated everywhere increased by 10% (i.e., from 32% of area to 35% of area), other things equal we estimate that the annual rate of subsidence of the groundwater level would increase by 0.1271 feet per year, from -0.49 feet per year to -0.6271 feet per year. We feel if we can save an inch on every well, we can start to stop the problem. Were doing what we can to be proactive.. Agriculture technology has attracted a lot of attention in Silicon Valley, and a big part of the burgeoning startup scene focuses on using water more efficiently and effectively. water transfers to this region from the Great Lakes or some other The Ogallala is one of the world's largest aquifers. But contaminants are already there. In a decade or two, he predicts this part of southwest Kansas won't have any irrigation wells left. In fact, maps projecting depletion rates in the district by the Center for Geospatial Technology at Texas Tech estimate large swaths of Parmer, Castro, Lamb and Hale counties have fewer than 15 years of usable life left. As Steward and his colleagues found, farmers would have to cut their groundwater pumping by 80 percent today to bring depletions in line with rainwater recharge. If I go to work in the morning and see the neighbors pivot running, I think I need to be watering, Rogers says. Estimates show that if pumping trends continue, more than two-thirds of the water under Kansas will be gone within 40 years. Right:Bottom: Sediment that formed the Ogallala aquifer sloughed off from the Rocky Mountains, creating gravel that is mined for construction materials. It was formed millions of years ago from the erosion of the Rocky Mountains and now traverses through portions of eight statesColorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyomingproviding 30 percent of the United States irrigation, and contributing to an astounding 20 percent of the countrys entire agricultural output. or a southern High Plains strategy emerge as opposed to a six-state High https://doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12781, Bathke, D. J., R. J. Oglesby, C. M. Rowe, and D. A. Wilhite. The water district data shows widespread and uneven declines. dilemma for some of those immediately affected. Even before the recent drought, it was clear that the areas increasing number of irrigation wells, and a lack of adequate recharge, was bringing High Plains agriculture to a crisis point.

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