KS District Judge Orders Pumps Stopped In Major Ogalalla Aquifer Decision

[hatrack]

A judge has ruled in a long-running legal fight over water in Kansas, siding with a farmer who argued his neighbor’s pumping was illegally pulling down the level of the water table. By permanently barring the use of two wells in an area where farmers rely on the Ogallala Aquifer to grow corn, the judge concluded the Garetson family’s senior water right had been “impaired” by their neighbor – a company that holds a junior water right.

“What made this case so important is the precedent that is now set,” said Jay Garetson, who filed the lawsuit in 2012 together with his brother Jarvis. The Garetsons have said they sued not only to defend their livelihood but also to press the state to enforce its water laws, and to call attention to the urgent need for action to preserve the aquifer. “Our goal was to force this to the forefront,” Garetson said in an interview on Wednesday. “The best-case scenario would be it forces people to recognize that the status quo is no longer an option.”

The High Plains Aquifer, also known as the Ogallala, lies beneath eight states from South Dakota to Texas and is the lifeblood of one of the world’s most productive farming economies. The aquifer makes possible about one-fifth of the country’s output of corn, wheat and cattle. But its levels have been rapidly declining as farms pump out much more water than is naturally replenished.

In parts of southwestern Kansas, many wells have gone dry and some farmers have called for collective steps to slow the rate of decline and extend the life of the aquifer. Kansas' “first-in-time, first-in-right” water rights system gives priority to those who have been using their wells the longest. And farmers are actually using much less water than they would be permitted under the system of appropriated groundwater rights established decades ago. But with aquifers levels dropping and a limited supply left that can be economically extracted for farming, the Garetsons and others argue that the state and water districts should step in to establish limits on pumping.

EDIT

http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/environment/2017/02/02/kansas-water-lawsuit-could-become-catalyst-slowing-aquifers-decline/97424808/

[WhiteTara]

1. Well, that is life affirming.

[The_Voice_of_Reason]

2. All well and fine indeed, but

as much as I applaud the judges decision, it is putting a bandaid on bleeding artery...the real problem is, if the usage rate is not greatly reduced, giving the aquifer adequate time to recharge, they are going to kill it.

[pscot]

3. What Happens to the U.S. Midwest When the Water's Gone?

From National Geographic last August

The draining of North America’s largest aquifer is playing out in similar ways across the world, as large groundwater basins in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East decline rapidly. Many of these aquifers, including the southern Ogallala, have little ability to recharge. Once their water is gone, they could take thousands of years to refill.

“The consequences will be huge,” says Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and lead researcher on a study using satellites to record changes in the world’s 37 largest aquifers. “We need to sustain groundwater to sustain food production, and we’re not doing it. Is draining the Ogallala the smartest thing for food production in the U.S. and globally? This is the question we need to answer.”

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/08/vanishing-midwest-ogallala-aquifer-drought/

[hatrack]

4. Oh, don't worry - Gov. Brownstain and the Corps have a plan!

EDIT

Much of the talk will center on relatively quick responses to the drought and the rapid decline of the western Ogallala aquifer, the ancient underground water source now drying at an unprecedented rate. The draft 50-year plan suggests a variety of strategies: conservation, reuse of water, better management techniques, more drought-resistant crops.

But it also hints at the still-explosive idea of moving billions of gallons of water from water-rich areas to the parched west. “Allow for the transfer of water supplies between basins where feasible and cost effective,” the draft report proposes. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pondered just such a plan in 1982. It envisioned a new 13,000-acre reservoir in northeast Kansas, where excess Missouri River water would be stored for eventual transfer to a second reservoir in the western part of the state. Even the mention of the idea sends shudders through politicians in other states. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon wrote Brownback in 2013, urging him to drop the idea. But the corps — at the request of Kansas officials — continued to study the proposal, and in early 2015 it will release its findings.

Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostick, head of the corps, said the report would outline options for policymakers, including construction hurdles and potential cost. Drought here and across the country has provoked a new urgency with his engineers, he said. “We’re very concerned about drought at all levels,” he said. “We’re not as advanced as we are in flood-risk management. We don’t have the tools.” But he also predicts difficulty finding support in Washington for building and operating more than 300 miles of water pipeline when the corps already faces a huge backlog of flood control and harbor improvement projects.

The 1982 study said a trans-basin pipeline would cost $4 billion in late-1970s dollars. The new study is expected to predict an even higher cost. “We have to do the science,” Bostick said. “We have to present options to our congressional leaders and the American people, and to local leaders, and then the local people have to help make a decision.”

EDIT

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article5413443.html#storylink=cpy