Research shows that water reaching the aquifer through playas is of higher quality than that going through other pathways. Playas work best when they are surrounded by a native grass buffer that filters out soil and agricultural contaminants and there are no pits or other modifications to the playa. Filling in pits is one of the easiest ways to restore a playa. In most cases, the spoil pile from the original excavation is present and used to refill the pit.
Once filled, rainwater and runoff can reach the large cracks in a dry playa—which is essential for recharge to occur—rather than collecting in the pit.
The shallow water that spreads across the playa also allows plants to flourish, which in turn provides important food and habitat for migrating birds and other wildlife. Contact Us Donate Now. Matthew R Sanderson has received funding from the U. National Science Foundation and the U. Department of Agriculture.
Burke W. Griggs has received funding from the National Science Foundation and the U. A slow-moving crisis threatens the U. But farmers are pulling water out of the Ogallala faster than rain and snow can recharge it. Between and they drained some 89 trillion gallons from the aquifer — equivalent to two-thirds of Lake Erie.
Depletion is threatening drinking water supplies and undermining local communities already struggling with the COVID pandemic , the opioid crisis , hospital closures , soaring farm losses and rising suicide rates. Some observers blame this situation on periodic drought. But our research, which focuses on social and legal aspects of water use in agricultural communities, shows that farmers are draining the Ogallala because state and federal policies encourage them to do it.
At first glance, farmers on the Plains appear to be doing well in Crop production increased this year. Corn, the largest crop in the U. But those figures hide massive government payments to farmers. This sum includes money for lost exports from escalating trade wars, as well as COVIDrelated relief payments.
Corn prices were too low to cover the cost of growing it this year, with federal subsidies making up the difference. Our research finds that subsidies put farmers on a treadmill , working harder to produce more while draining the resource that supports their livelihood. Government payments create a vicious cycle of overproduction that intensifies water use. Subsidies encourage farmers to expand and buy expensive equipment to irrigate larger areas.
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.
And scientists say it will take natural processes 6, 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. 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.
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