Irrigation water is being drawn out of the Great Plains underground aquifer faster than it can be replenished, and a record-setting drought is amplifying the trend.
“June was a brutal month. It was almost like a blast furnace,” said Carmon McCain, who handles information and education for the High Plains Underground Water Conservation District in Lubbock, Texas. “It certainly has impacted water awareness in our region, not only agriculturally, but in urban areas as well.”
Droughts ratchet up the need for water at the same time recharge rates decline.
“The main recharge to the Ogallala in the Southern Plains are the small playa basins that dot the landscape,” McCain said. “When you don’t get rain, you don’t have any water in those basins going into the aquifer.”
“There’s a very good relationship with annual rainfall and rate of decline,” addedWayne Bossert, longtime manager for Kansas’ Groundwater Management District No. 4 in Colby, which covers 3.11 million acres in all or part of 10 western Kansas counties.
Average annual recharge rate for the aquifer is half an inch per year, but the depth of withdrawal in some areas is many times that. In the Texas Panhandle, the water table was drawn down one and a half feet in 2009-2010 but only one 500th of a foot in 2010-2011, when hurricanes brought monsoon-like summer rains to the region.
In western Kansas, the rate of decline had been diminishing since the 1960s, but that changed after 2000, when the latest drought cycle hit, and farmers began pumping more water. In southwest Kansas, where the drought has been particularly pronounced, well tests in January showed the water level in some parts of the aquifer had dropped more than 5 feet in the last year, according to the Kansas Geological Survey at the University of Kansas.
Around 400 geologists, water managers, ag producers and other stakeholders attended last week’s special Governor’s Economic Summit on the future of the Ogallala, hosted by Gov. Sam Brownback and held in conjunction with the annual Kansas Water Congress. The primary topic of discussion was how to preserve the aquifer without sacrificing economic growth. The aquifer, which underlies 174,000 square miles in parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas, is the lifeblood of many rural communities. For example, in Kansas, roughly 94 percent of groundwater is used for irrigation, which supports livestock feeding, meatpacking, ethanol production and related industries.
Presentations from the summit are posted online at the Kansas Water Office site, www.kwo.org.
One of Gov. Brownback’s priorities is reforming the state’s so-called “use it or lose it” water requirement that allows water rights to lapse if they go unused over a certain period of time, which many now view as a disincentive for conservation.
Bossert’s priority is making it easier to enforce water use restrictions in high priority areas where groundwater declines are most dramatic. Currently, the process of designating “intensive use control areas” is hard to implement, and he wants to see laws changed to make the system more “user friendly.”
At the summit, municipalities expressed concerns about how to get access to affordable water rights. “It’s problematic for them,” Bossert said. “But it’s supply and demand at the most fundamental level.”
Other items discussed included insuring local participation and involvement and allowing for variable approaches in response to the variability of situations.
As a result of the meeting, Gov. Brownback appointed a 21-member advisory committee that will embark on a policy planning process to improve underground water conservation in Kansas. The group begins meeting in August, with plans to approach the state legislature with proposals in 2012.
Representatives came from multiple states to attend the summit, which Bossert said is indicative of the heightened interest in managing underground water supplies.
In Texas, concerns about the future of the aquifer prompted the High Plains district in Lubbock to adopt new rules recently aimed at cutting back the rate of depletion.
“We know the Ogallala is a mined resource,” McCain concedes. “It’s been used continuously since the 1930s. What we are doing is trying to extend the life of the Ogallala for another 50 years.”
The new rule amendments establish the first-ever production limit for groundwater pumping within the 16-county High Plains Water District service area. That level will drop in successive years, to eventually reach a level of 1.25 acre-feet, or 15 inches per year, in 2016. The district is also requiring annual reports on water use and a meter on every well beginning in 2012.
“In the previous 60 years, there’s only been spacing restrictions between wells,” said Jim Conkwright, the district’s general manager.
Producers have responded to the new restrictions “very positively,” he said.
“Most of the producers we work with will say, ‘we knew something needed to be done, we just didn’t know what.’ From history, they know that we’ll work with them on it,” he added.
The district is part of the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation, a partnership of producers, universities, data collection companies and other government entities that conduct education and research on optimizing water use. The alliance is holding a field day near Muncy, Texas, on Aug. 4 to discuss efficient technologies, such as drip irrigation, and drought resistant crop varieties.
The district also partners with the Texas A&M Extension Service on the development of drought tolerant corn and offers a free pre-plant soil moisture measuring service to prevent over-application of water. A program is underway that uses an underground probe to monitor water availability and plant use. Conkwright cites this as one of the most exciting new tools available, because it allows farmers to monitor and fine-tune how much irrigation water they apply.
Field-scale demonstration projects also help farmers decide what crops are most economical and how to maximize the average combined 36 inches of water they will get in the future from rainfall and supplemental irrigation.
“Cotton is definitely something that will do really well,” Conkwright said. “Corn can do okay on that much water.”
Both water managers, however, warn that any serious discussion about the future of the aquifer needs to go beyond just increasing water use efficiencies.
“Efficiency and conservation are not the same thing,” Conkwright asserts. “Efficiency might allow you to irrigate more acres, but you might still be using the same amount of water.”
Instead, the region will need to adapt by not only deploying and developing new technology but by engaging private industry and perhaps even encouraging businesses to shuffle geographically to where it is most feasible to operate, he said.
Market forces will encourage that process as it unfolds over time, he said.
But conservation efforts need to be coordinated and comprehensively enforced to insure water savings in one place aren’t merely being siphoned off for application somewhere else, Bossert adds from Colby. Otherwise, “you’re just shifting the wealth.”
“Most water decisions by states over the last 30 years have either promoted economic development at the expense of the water supply or saved water at the expense of economic returns,” he said. “At this point in time, we have to do both simultaneously. It’s a difficult task.”
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Irrigation water is being drawn out of the Great Plains underground aquifer faster than it can be replenished, and a record-setting drought is amplifying the trend.
“June was a brutal month. It was almost like a blast furnace,” said Carmon McCain, who handles information and education for the High Plains Underground Water Conservation District in Lubbock, Texas. “It certainly has impacted water awareness in our region, not only agriculturally, but in urban areas as well.”
Droughts ratchet up the need for water at the same time recharge rates decline.
“The main recharge to the Ogallala in the Southern Plains are the small playa basins that dot the landscape,” McCain said. “When you don’t get rain, you don’t have any water in those basins going into the aquifer.”
“There’s a very good relationship with annual rainfall and rate of decline,” addedWayne Bossert, longtime manager for Kansas’ Groundwater Management District No. 4 in Colby, which covers 3.11 million acres in all or part of 10 western Kansas counties.
Average annual recharge rate for the aquifer is half an inch per year, but the depth of withdrawal in some areas is many times that. In the Texas Panhandle, the water table was drawn down one and a half feet in 2009-2010 but only one 500th of a foot in 2010-2011, when hurricanes brought monsoon-like summer rains to the region.
In western Kansas, the rate of decline had been diminishing since the 1960s, but that changed after 2000, when the latest drought cycle hit, and farmers began pumping more water. In southwest Kansas, where the drought has been particularly pronounced, well tests in January showed the water level in some parts of the aquifer had dropped more than 5 feet in the last year, according to the Kansas Geological Survey at the University of Kansas.
Around 400 geologists, water managers, ag producers and other stakeholders attended last week’s special Governor’s Economic Summit on the future of the Ogallala, hosted by Gov. Sam Brownback and held in conjunction with the annual Kansas Water Congress. The primary topic of discussion was how to preserve the aquifer without sacrificing economic growth. The aquifer, which underlies 174,000 square miles in parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas, is the lifeblood of many rural communities. For example, in Kansas, roughly 94 percent of groundwater is used for irrigation, which supports livestock feeding, meatpacking, ethanol production and related industries.
Presentations from the summit are posted online at the Kansas Water Office site, www.kwo.org.
One of Gov. Brownback’s priorities is reforming the state’s so-called “use it or lose it” water requirement that allows water rights to lapse if they go unused over a certain period of time, which many now view as a disincentive for conservation.
Bossert’s priority is making it easier to enforce water use restrictions in high priority areas where groundwater declines are most dramatic. Currently, the process of designating “intensive use control areas” is hard to implement, and he wants to see laws changed to make the system more “user friendly.”
At the summit, municipalities expressed concerns about how to get access to affordable water rights. “It’s problematic for them,” Bossert said. “But it’s supply and demand at the most fundamental level.”
Other items discussed included insuring local participation and involvement and allowing for variable approaches in response to the variability of situations.
As a result of the meeting, Gov. Brownback appointed a 21-member advisory committee that will embark on a policy planning process to improve underground water conservation in Kansas. The group begins meeting in August, with plans to approach the state legislature with proposals in 2012.
Representatives came from multiple states to attend the summit, which Bossert said is indicative of the heightened interest in managing underground water supplies.
In Texas, concerns about the future of the aquifer prompted the High Plains district in Lubbock to adopt new rules recently aimed at cutting back the rate of depletion.
“We know the Ogallala is a mined resource,” McCain concedes. “It’s been used continuously since the 1930s. What we are doing is trying to extend the life of the Ogallala for another 50 years.”
The new rule amendments establish the first-ever production limit for groundwater pumping within the 16-county High Plains Water District service area. That level will drop in successive years, to eventually reach a level of 1.25 acre-feet, or 15 inches per year, in 2016. The district is also requiring annual reports on water use and a meter on every well beginning in 2012.
“In the previous 60 years, there’s only been spacing restrictions between wells,” said Jim Conkwright, the district’s general manager.
Producers have responded to the new restrictions “very positively,” he said.
“Most of the producers we work with will say, ‘we knew something needed to be done, we just didn’t know what.’ From history, they know that we’ll work with them on it,” he added.
The district is part of the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation, a partnership of producers, universities, data collection companies and other government entities that conduct education and research on optimizing water use. The alliance is holding a field day near Muncy, Texas, on Aug. 4 to discuss efficient technologies, such as drip irrigation, and drought resistant crop varieties.
The district also partners with the Texas A&M Extension Service on the development of drought tolerant corn and offers a free pre-plant soil moisture measuring service to prevent over-application of water. A program is underway that uses an underground probe to monitor water availability and plant use. Conkwright cites this as one of the most exciting new tools available, because it allows farmers to monitor and fine-tune how much irrigation water they apply.
Field-scale demonstration projects also help farmers decide what crops are most economical and how to maximize the average combined 36 inches of water they will get in the future from rainfall and supplemental irrigation.
“Cotton is definitely something that will do really well,” Conkwright said. “Corn can do okay on that much water.”
Both water managers, however, warn that any serious discussion about the future of the aquifer needs to go beyond just increasing water use efficiencies.
“Efficiency and conservation are not the same thing,” Conkwright asserts. “Efficiency might allow you to irrigate more acres, but you might still be using the same amount of water.”
Instead, the region will need to adapt by not only deploying and developing new technology but by engaging private industry and perhaps even encouraging businesses to shuffle geographically to where it is most feasible to operate, he said.
Market forces will encourage that process as it unfolds over time, he said.
But conservation efforts need to be coordinated and comprehensively enforced to insure water savings in one place aren’t merely being siphoned off for application somewhere else, Bossert adds from Colby. Otherwise, “you’re just shifting the wealth.”
“Most water decisions by states over the last 30 years have either promoted economic development at the expense of the water supply or saved water at the expense of economic returns,” he said. “At this point in time, we have to do both simultaneously. It’s a difficult task.”
