Ogallala Aquifer a Finite Environmental Asset

The Environmental Cost of the Depletion of the High Plains Aquifer

Jun 14, 2009 Laurence O'Sullivan

The Ogallala Aquifer, stretching from South Dakota in the north to the Texas Panhandle in the south, has transformed the High Plains area of the United States from a harsh, semi-arid environment, prone to droughts and soil erosion, from the dust bowl of the 1930s to the “breadbasket of the world” today. Unfortunately this is a finite environmental asset, consisting of “fossil water” and is being depleted much faster than nature can replenish it, with dire environmental consequences for the entire region.

Environmental Importance of the Ogallala Aquifer

The immense verdant fields of crops that make up the American High Plains produce over one fifth of the annual U.S. agricultural output. This area, which produced the dust bowl conditions of the 1930s, now is one of the world’s greatest producers of food. This transformation has been made possible because of the Ogallala Aquifer.

• On the Great Plains, by Geoff Cunfer, published by the Texas A&M University Press in 2005 describes the Ogallala thus, “In the Great Plains, the ultimate in underground waters is the Ogallala Aquifer, and that source fueled an irrigation boom on the southern and central plains in the twentieth century. The Ogallala Aquifer is a vast lake lying a few hundred feet beneath the dry, dusty plains.”

• Stanley Wayne Trimble, author of The Encyclopaedia of Water Science, published by CRC Press in 2007 underscores the environmental importance of the Ogallala when he states, “Because of the low and varied precipitation, much of the area has no year around water supply from surface supplies. The Ogallala Aquifer therefore became the lifeblood for development of the Great Plains.”

• The Food Revolution by John Robbins, published by Red Wheel in 2001 explains that, “It took nature millions of years to form the great Ogallala aquifer that stretches from South Dakota to Texas. This is the largest body of fresh water on Earth, and it lies underneath some of the richest farmland in the world – the great American grain belt.”

Threats to the Ogallala Groundwater System

Due to intensive farming, rapid industrialization and the drive for biofuels, the Ogallala Aquifer, a finite environmental asset, is being depleted with ominous future environmental consequences.

• Ogallala by John Opie, published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2000 pinpoints the upcoming environmental threats to the Ogallala groundwater system when it states, “Unlike most of the world’s water supplies, Ogallala groundwater is largely non-renewable because its sources were cut off thousands of years ago. It is essentially "fossil water" that was generated ten thousand to twenty-five thousand years ago from the glacier-laden Rockies.”

• Ground-Water Availability in the United States, by Thomas Reilly et al, published by the U.S. Geological Survey in 2008 states that, “During the past half century or so, water in storage in the High Plains aquifer declined about 200 million acre-feet (equivalent to 65 trillion gallons) with 62 percent of the total ground-water volume loss occurring in Texas.”

• An article by Ryan Christiansen, titled “Irrigation Mitigation”, published in the January 2009 edition of Ethanol Producer magazine explains that, “Ogallala aquifer groundwater supplies have been declining since irrigation began in the 1960s. Increased demand for corn for ethanol might result in more corn acreage and more intensive irrigation, which might accelerate the decline of the aquifer.”

• Ken Midkiff, author of Not a Drop to Drink, published by New World Library in 2007 predicts, “Sooner or later if irrigation continues to draw down the Ogallala, the cities, towns, and villages of the High Plains will either be extinguished or be forced to seek other sources of water, which will be no small feat.”

The Ogallala Aquifer is an environmental resource that has made a huge difference to the lives of millions of people. In view of the global shortage of freshwater resources, unsustainable depletion of the Earth’s resources, such as the Ogallala Aquifer, cannot continue as before, without dire environmental consequences.