Where is ogallala aquifer

Johnny Stansell. Need to figure out a way to recharge the aquifer. Billions of gallons of water discharge into the sea every year. I just wanted to say thank you for having this site with all of this infomation.

One of my high school teachers assigned this huge assignment to find out what the ogallala aquifer was and why it was important, and in this article, it has everything I need to know! So thank you for making my school work so much easier! Now I have enough time to do my school work and play with my son! Once again, Thank You! Malcolm Usrey. Though they alone cannot replace but little of the depleted water in the Ogallala Aquifier, a few people are trying to restore a number of the playas that no long work as they should to send water to the Ogallala Aquifier, according to articles I have read in the Amarillo GLOBE NEWS in the past several months.

Where I live in west central Nebraska, it is feet down to the Brule Formation, according to the data from the monitoring well they drilled on our property.

Their goal is to sink a well, in a grid, every 6 miles to see how deep it is, and to monitor the levels of ground water. For the last several years, the groundwater is as high as 2 ft. One truth that noone seems to comprehend is that there is the same amount of water on this earth as the day it was created. Water is not "disappearing". Water that irrigates someone's field sinks into the earth to recharge another area.

Water that runs into the ocean percolates underground and eventually recharges the groundwater. It is probably true that center pivot irrigators are pumping it out faster than Mother Nature can recycle.

It would help that situation if the government quit subsidizing farmers. Politicians with an agenda would have us believe that it is "Climate Change"!! Michael - North NJ. A story published at MSNBC says, "The wells also contained benzene at 50 times the level that is considered safe for people, as well as phenols -- another dangerous human carcinogen -- acetone, toluene, naphthalene and traces of diesel fuel. Once it's contaminated, it's useless.

Thank your local EPA-bashing, anti-regulation Republican representatives for placing profits above health. Does the ollagalla have iron or suphur taste? Like a shot of rotgut whiskey? Wake-up Amurica!! We look back now at the farmers of 50 years ago and say "how stupid could they be?

I've lived in Nebraska all of my life and heard my farmer father tell stories of the dust bowl days and how hard it was.

I had no idea that the vast expansion of farming was largely responsible for creating the conditions.

Only now instead of just spoiling the land, we're ruining and depleting our most precious resource. Please, we need to stop this insanity. The aquifer survived 50 years ago because we hadn't yet figured out how to tap into it. How can it survive this time around if the drought lasts 10 years as it did in the 's? Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic: Name:.

With new provisions, the program could reduce water use by prohibiting expansion of irrigated acreage, permanently retiring marginal lands and linking subsidies to production of less water-intensive crops. These initiatives could be implemented through the federal farm bill , which also sets funding levels for nonfarm subsidies such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program , or SNAP.

Increasing these payments and adding financial assistance to local communities could offset lower tax revenues that result from from farming less acreage. Amending federal farm credit rates could also slow the treadmill. Generous terms promote borrowing for irrigation equipment; to pay that debt, borrowers farm more land. Offering lower rates for equipment that reduces water use and withholding loans for standard, wasteful equipment could nudge farmers toward conservation.

The most powerful tool is the tax code. Currently, farmers receive deductions for declining groundwater levels and can write off depreciation on irrigation equipment. Replacing these perks with a tax credit for stabilizing groundwater and substituting a depreciation schedule favoring more efficient irrigation equipment could provide strong incentives to conserve water. Water rights are mostly determined by state law, so reforming state water policies is crucial.

Case law demonstrates that simply owning water rights does not grant the legal right to waste water. Using these precedents, state water agencies could designate thirsty crops, such as rice, cotton or corn, as wasteful in certain regions.

Regulations preventing unreasonable water use are not unconstitutional. Allowing farmers some flexibility will maximize profits, as long as they stabilize overall water use.

If they irrigate less — or not at all — in years with low market prices, rules could allow more irrigation in better years.

Ultimately, many farmers — and their bankers — are willing to exchange lower annual yields for a longer water supply. As our research has shown, the vast majority of farmers in the region want to save groundwater. They will need help from policymakers to do it. Depletion is a structural problem embedded in agricultural policies. Groundwater depletion is a policy choice made by federal, state and local officials.

Gray indicates no significant change. Although water levels have actually risen in some areas, especially Nebraska, water levels are mostly in decline, namely from Kansas southward.

In the early twentieth century, farmers converted large stretches of the Great Plains from grassland to cropland. Drought and stress on the soils led to the s Dust Bowl. Better soil conservation and irrigation techniques tamed the dust and boosted the regional economy.

However, well outputs in the central and southern parts of the aquifer are declining due to excessive pumping, and prolonged droughts have parched the area, bringing back Dust Bowl-style storms, according to the NCA4. Global warming is likely to make droughts across the Ogallala region longer lasting and more intense over the next 50 years.

The Agriculture chapter of NCA4 describes the risks and opportunities for resilience across the Ogallala region:. Recent advances in precision irrigation technologies, improved understanding of the impacts of different dryland and irrigation management strategies on crop productivity, and the adoption of weather-based irrigation scheduling tools as well as drought-tolerant crop varieties have increased the ability to cope with projected heat stress and drought conditions under climate change.

However, current extraction for irrigation far exceeds recharge in this aquifer, and climate change places additional pressure on this critical water resource. Gowda, P. Chapter Agriculture and Rural Communities.