Kansas Aquifer Going Dry

[RestoreGore]

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2006/oct/15/water_crisis_demands_attention/?kansas_crossroads

Water crisis demands attention
By Scott Rothschild (Contact)

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Beneath the soil of landlocked Kansas lies a vast, life-sustaining source of water called the High Plains aquifer. Formed millions of years ago, the aquifer — also referred to as the Ogallala — underlies an area of 174,000 square miles in parts of eight states, including most of western Kansas.

Since the 1940s, farmers have ferociously pumped the aquifer to produce food for a hungry nation and world. An estimated 15 million acre-feet of water per year are withdrawn for irrigation. One acre-foot of water is 325,851 gallons, or the amount it would take to cover an acre of land with one foot of water.

Now, in some areas of western Kansas, the aquifer has been sucked dry or is close to it, and farmers are shutting down wells. The effect of draining the source of water that grows a major portion of the nation’s crops has seismic repercussions.

“It’s a big, complex problem,” said Susan Stover, manager of the High Plains unit at the Kansas Water Office. “There will need to be a lot of changes. We can’t have near the amount of irrigated corn and alfalfa that we have. We don’t have the water.

More here:

http://water-is-life.blogspot.com/2006/10/kansas-aquifer-going-dry.html

[kenny blankenship]

1. dustbowl coming?

for years I've heard that the topsoil has been mostly stripped away in the midwest (what hasn't been stripped is terribly depleted) and that agriculture there is sustained by intensive petrochemical fertilizer use. Add an epochal drought to that and you'd have a real problem.

[aquart]

2. Not good.

One more disaster BushCo is unprepared for.

[Warpy]

3. Dry land farming can be done

and the local Pueblo tribes are masters at it. Plus, the pre Dust Bowl farms relied on rainfall, not irrigation, and they were generally prosperous enough to afford families a living until the drought cycle began.

Non irrigated crop yields will be lower and drought cycles are going to have to be respected in that region, and grain and soybeans stored from year to year to compensate for them.

[nashville_brook]

4. dry land farming sustainable for communities, not corporations??

fine with me!

[jpak]

10. Let it revert to native prairie and graze bison

Diverse prairie plant communities are drought resistant and can produce biofuels (ex. pelleted hay for stoves and furnaces, baled hay for power plants) and bison (for the carnivores).

(and dry land farming too)

[RestoreGore]

11. Conservation is key as well

Drylands in Africa and Asia also employ this method, although now that drought is becoming more prevalent and more prolonged, even this is in danger of becoming ineffective unless new innovations are combined with conservation.

Here is some interesting information about it:

http://www.scidev.net/dossiers/index.cfm?fuseaction=policybrief&dossier=25&policy=129

[hatrack]

13. Yes, but yields are going to, shall we say, fall off a bit?

No more corn planted ten inches apart.

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. The phrase "seismic repercussions" caught my eye

How far below the surface is this aquifer? How stable is the bedrock that forms the ceiling? What might happen if a "seismic event" were to crack that ceiling and cause it to start collapsing? Hydrostatic pressure helped to keep it stable for a very long time; what is going to happen now that most of the pressure is gone?

As bad as the lack of water will be, there are other issues that must be considered as well.

[RestoreGore]

9. I thought that phrase was a metaphor,,,

At least, I hope it was.

[Warpy]

12. I read many years ago that the area over

the Oglalla aquifer had sunk some 15 feet since large scale irrigation had begun in the 40s.

No reference, it's just one of those stray statistics that stuck.

[Journeyman]

6. Read "Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Vanishing Water"…

Marc Reisner laid out the problems two decades ago. He wasn't the first to see this, won't be the last, but he's probably the best writer to approach the subject.

[SheilaT]

7. Excellent Book.

I've read it.

Also read "The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan, which is specifically about the area around Dalhart, Texas during the Dust Bowl years.

[RestoreGore]

8. Thank You for the information

I will definitely check that book out.