High Plains Aquifer

Each year, at least 7.8 trillion gallons of water are drawn up from the Ogalla Aquifer to irrigate the crops planted on the High Plains. These cros are the main food sourrce for our entire country. Tragically, irrigation is depleting the aquifer faster than it can replenish itself, and that is the problem. In fact, only the tiniest fraction of the water is ever replaced in the Ogallala Aquifer. If the water were ever fully depleted, the aquifer would need 6,000 years to refill naturally (Zwingle 83). The only way the Ogalla can be replenished is by water seeping down through the layers of soil until it reaches the aquifer. This water comes from the small amount of precipitation in the region, as well as from streams, reservoirs, canals, and irrigation (McGuire and Sharpe).

Abraham Lustgarten has written a very informative article that is published by Pro Publica and titled “How the West Overcounts Its Water Supplies.” In great detail, he analyzes the drought situation in Arizona and California to draw attention the underlying cause: the miscounting of available water. There is miscounting because officials are refusing to legally accept that the major water resource of the West—the Colorado River—is interconnected with underground water resources. All in all, Lustgarten writes a convincing article that effectively addresses the need for officials to recognize the interconnection of ground and surface water so that water shortage in the West can be better managed; he does this through his ability to gain the

“Climate change” and its impact on basic water supply is at their foreground. It is an unfortunate reality that the terms of the Colorado Compact, the document dividing the Colorado’s waters, is an unworkable document. Based on allotments formulated in an “especially wet year,” the average volume now flowing does not meet the amounts specified in the agreement. Under the terms of the document, California receives the largest share, but with Southern California’s exploding population, this will be increasingly inadequate. Absent changes in both urban and agricultural use patterns, the deficit will only grow and further stress the state’s political and economic systems. Man’s mastery will thus prove illusory and short-lived and the original problems of water supply will return in highly magnified

A potential solution for farmers would be to switch to a subsurface drip irrigation system that could permanently cut farmers' water use by 25 to 50 percent. This would alleviate some of the need for conservation and free up more state water reserves for urban use during time of regional drought (U.S. Water News Online).

Water is vital to the survival of man. Settlers fought over it, farmers depend on it, and communities rely on it. Fort Huachuca and Sierra Vista are no exception. Located in one of the driest states in the U.S., they rely on the San Pedro River watershed for water. Barbara Tellman and Diane Hadley’s (1999) book Crossing Boundaries, talks of travelers in the 1800s who were amazed to see cottonwood lined streams of the San Pedro after traveling for days in desert uplands (p.11). Fort Huachuca was established because of the water source at the foot of the Huachuca Mountains, needed by Captain S.M. Whiteside, his troops and their horses (Price, 2003, p31). In 1902 Congress enacted the National Reclamation Act, signed by President Theodore Roosevelt. The Act recognized the importance of water to western development. Sierra Vista continues to grow, the use of ground water increases causing the water table to drop. As the water table drops, more human, plant and animal life are affected. To understand the significance of water in the Sierra Vista/ Fort Huachuca area, it is important to know where the water comes from, why it is so important and how it can be protected. Sierra Vista’s water is not infinite. There may not be enough

Arizonans see California’s drought and water restrictions plastered all over the television and newspapers. Many Arizonans remain concerned about the well-being of Californians, while some may mistakenly think that it is not Arizona’s problem. I was one of those people, and while investigated the idea, discover how Arizona is in a bad situation because of it. What I, along with others, did not understand is the years of planning, legislation, and engineering that took place to get water to Arizona and the rest of the Southwest. The Southwest is an arid environment that relies on one river, the Colorado River, to deliver water to seven different

Now, what is an aquifer and what is it used for? Aquifers are an aquifer is a body of saturated rock through which water can easily move (isu.edu). In order for a well to be productive, it must be drilled into an aquifer (isu.edu). Rocks such as granite and schist are generally poor aquifers because they have a very low porosity (isu.edu). However, if these rocks are highly fractured, they make good aquifers (isu.edu). A well is a hole drilled into the ground to penetrate an aquifer (isu.edu). One aquifer, called the Ogallala aquifer, produces one-fifth of the nations freshwater to crops in the mid-west (washingtonpost.com). But there is a problem, it is starting to dry up (washingtonpost.com). As a result, the aquifer is slowly getting depleted, with the water table dropping by as much as two feet per year in some counties (washingtonpost.com). And once they drain, it could take hundreds or thousands of years for those ancient aquifers, which were first formed millions of years ago, to fully recharge with rainfall (washingtonpost.com). Researchers found that 30 percent of the Kansas portion of the Ogallala Aquifer has already been pumped out, and another 39 percent will get used up in the next half-century at existing rates (washingtonpost.com). Kansas, clearly, is on the fast track to depletion (washingtonpost.com). As a result, agricultural production is likely to

The upper basin states (including Colorado) were allocated a much greater percentage of the water than the lower basin states, while the upper basin states were developing at a much slower rate than those in the lower basin, notably California. Nevada (as of 1997) anticipated being unable to rely just on this water by 2015, while in 1997 California was already exceeding its originally allocated supply by diverting unused water from the upper basin states (Arizona.edu, 1997). It goes without saying that this legislation from the early twentieth century is not going to be sufficient in coming years as the development of these regions has progressed at a much faster rate than originally anticipated, and it is the responsibility of state and federal governments, water management companies, as well as appeals from farmers and non-farming residents alike to come to an agreement on how to apportion water and how to implement secondary hydration plans due to the rapidly declining resource that the once-magnificent Colorado River was able to supply us

The Colorado River Basin starts in the Rocky Mountains and cuts through 1500 miles of canyon lands and deserts of seven US states and two Mexican states to supply a collection of dams and reservoirs with water to help irrigate cropland, support 40 million people, and provide hydroelectric power for the inland western United States [1,2]. From early settlement, rights over the river have been debated and reassigned to different states in the upper and lower basin; however, all the distribution patterns lead to excessive consumption of the resource. In 1922, the seven US states signed into the Colorado River Compact, which outlined the policy for the distribution rights to the water [3], however, this compact was written during an exceptionally

The problem in my regions, is that farmers use so much of the aquifer,whether it be from wells, irrigations systems, and even citizens using it in town. Our problem is that the Ogalala aquifer is runing low, and without that we wont have saafe drinking water. If we use up our aquifer, what are we supposed to do? The Texas Panhandle uses too much water, with farmers and in ctizens in town. We need to conserve water and attempt to make our aquifer last longer than we expect it to. Becuase without it, we won't have any safe drinking water, or any safe water for that

As Texas continues to increase in urbanization, the amount of water needed for municipal and industrial uses will increase significantly. More than half the water in Texas comes from underground. Aquifers in some areas of the state are being consumed faster than they can be filled again. Having a sustainable and efficient groundwater management policy is important to ensure that the future water demands will be satisfied.

The dust settled as the last vehicle departed the newly established ghost town. What was once a bustling rural community in eastern Colorado, complete with a school and church, and businesses off the main street, has become deserted due to a lack of water. This has become an all too familiar scene in rural communities across Colorado as the increasing demand for water and the dwindling water supply pits water users against one another. The state’s free market style of appropriating water, known as prior appropriation, allows for this highly competitive, and often detrimental situation to persist. As climate change and population growth continue to strain the water supply in Colorado, it will be necessary to adjust the strict prior appropriation

Texas, with its abundances of natural resources, is facing a new demon, one that doesn’t even seem possible, a shortage of water. Water, without it nothing can survive. Texas is the second largest state for landmass in the nation and ninth for water square miles. Within the borders of Texas are more than 100 lakes, 14 major rivers, and 23 aquifers, so why has water become such an important issue for the state? Politicians and conservationists all agree that without a new working water plan, the state could be facing one of the most damaging environmental disasters they have ever seen. The issues that shape the states positions are population growth, current drought conditions, and who actually owns the water.

Arizona’s extended drought is forcing water companies to take water from non-replenishable aquifers which take centuries to refill. Central Arizona needs to take drastic measures to reduce the amount of water consumed to ensure less water is drained from aquifers. A crucial measure which needs to be implemented is water conservation; some of these necessary water conservation methods include metering and increasing the water efficiency in agriculture.

Now Arizona is not the typical state that has a lot of precipitation and rain yearly, but it depends off other reservoirs, lakes, and rivers located in other states to for their water supply. After searching and conducting research, it was found that the main impact Arizona is suffering from the drought is decreasing water levels is from Lake Mead (located in Nevada), and the Colorado River, which flows North to South through several U.S. states. Research and data found shows that the Bureau of Reclamation releases water into the Colorado River below Lake Mead to meet water demands of downstream users in Arizona and California, and also to satisfy treaty obligations to the Republic of Mexico. Findings by the Bureau of Reclamation show that Lake Mead water level’s peaked at 1,214.26 in January of 2000. Almost a decade and a half later, recorded in January 2014, the water levels of Lake Mead are now 1,108.75 (Smith, 2014). This findings show that Arizona is continually getting a decline in water from Lake Mead every month that passes, affects thousands of residents living in Arizona, which already lacks water to begin with. If this continues, this can cause many civilians to both stand by and bare the drought as long as they can, or decide to move out of Arizona to states with a better water supply, so they won’t be burdened with the continual burden of having to ration and conserve water. The state has