Development of the Ogallala Aquifer
Traveling through Nebraska, one encounters an intricate network of underground water systems, none more significant than the Ogallala Aquifer. This vast water reserve, underlying portions of eight Great Plains states, with Nebraska being the second-largest beneficiary, has been a cornerstone in regional development. The Ogallala's sheer magnitude - spanning 174,000 square miles, and storing approximately one billion acre-feet of water - makes it an essential component in agricultural production, and human settlement.
The story of the Ogallala's development began roughly 25,000 years ago during the Pliocene epoch. At that time, the Pliocene sand dunes filled with pristine rainwater and melting ice, seeping into the rocky terrain, effectively clogging the porous rock layers. Over time, the sand became a colossal water filter allowing primarily rain to penetrate, thereby replenishing and solidifying a massive water reserve that we see today. Nebraska's Platte River, Chadron Creek, White River, and Sandhills lakes filled, ultimately supplementing the mammoth capacity of the aquifer.
One must look at the extensive use of the Ogallala, mainly initiated during the Great Depression by the New Deal programs. President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Natural Resources Conservation Service in 1935, a part of the US Department of Agriculture, with their main goal to reduce agricultural soil erosion and help farmers irrigate their crops more efficiently. Groundwater wells thus became widespread; the main advantage of having access to low-cost water greatly elevated crop production of previously marginal land. Groundwater provided agricultural producers an access card to expanding agriculture's regional area. Consequently, rural towns grew around water usage.
Despite an extremely powerful drought around 1950s, use continued at unbridled levels. Crop production soared as urban growth mirrored agricultural growth in population centers. Additionally a large agriculture-based town sprouted – McCook, located in the Republican River basin. When the late 50's ended with more widespread commercial use of turbines attached to traditional diesel motors, and they eventually started allowing for better control over huge amounts of power needed for plugging low output, unaccessible to most earlier power technologies. This in turn multiplied Ogallala availability among farmers. Plugging machines greatly increased a previously required area, roughly twice its area (called the "acre-inch"), where the same number of gallons of water was transferred with substantially lowered displacement.
Yet now comes inevitable exhaustion resulting from depleting its main source - rainfall that filters through. Each year, heavy agricultural practices induce approximately a net 1.5 billion gallon discharge. At that rate of losing millions every day there is inevitable risk that within decades the supply of that lifesaving Ogallala is potentially depleted to 40 percent. There is clear consensus among scientists that they have merely fifty years left before depletion. A leading program, however, dubbed "groundwater sustainability districts" indicates that within their own initiative, there might be slow mitigating losses, an encouraging prognosis for those committed to saving water stocks.
Considering agricultural water rights were distributed quickly, before rules were set for conservation purposes - mainly protecting the Ogallala is to decide whether rural lands that historically had been the primary water user can afford or not to switch into crop varieties which require greater water use in cultivation. With added strain, water depletion risks accelerating ever-faster. Current research indicates massive future declines and alarming losses with this unchecked decline causing less chances of making realistic near-future predictions possible without the need to reconsider use plans radically changing.
The task to secure additional groundwater capacity, together with water from existing, alternative resources for our communities stands out as one of greatest priorities that a good majority of these leaders in groundwater conservation along with the conservation of the Ogallala need to emphasize for that purpose. Considering factors ultimately comprising Ogallala sustainability is hard, which might explain that that remains the best option that the citizens who form these local water districts are sure about.
The story of the Ogallala's development began roughly 25,000 years ago during the Pliocene epoch. At that time, the Pliocene sand dunes filled with pristine rainwater and melting ice, seeping into the rocky terrain, effectively clogging the porous rock layers. Over time, the sand became a colossal water filter allowing primarily rain to penetrate, thereby replenishing and solidifying a massive water reserve that we see today. Nebraska's Platte River, Chadron Creek, White River, and Sandhills lakes filled, ultimately supplementing the mammoth capacity of the aquifer.
One must look at the extensive use of the Ogallala, mainly initiated during the Great Depression by the New Deal programs. President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Natural Resources Conservation Service in 1935, a part of the US Department of Agriculture, with their main goal to reduce agricultural soil erosion and help farmers irrigate their crops more efficiently. Groundwater wells thus became widespread; the main advantage of having access to low-cost water greatly elevated crop production of previously marginal land. Groundwater provided agricultural producers an access card to expanding agriculture's regional area. Consequently, rural towns grew around water usage.
Despite an extremely powerful drought around 1950s, use continued at unbridled levels. Crop production soared as urban growth mirrored agricultural growth in population centers. Additionally a large agriculture-based town sprouted – McCook, located in the Republican River basin. When the late 50's ended with more widespread commercial use of turbines attached to traditional diesel motors, and they eventually started allowing for better control over huge amounts of power needed for plugging low output, unaccessible to most earlier power technologies. This in turn multiplied Ogallala availability among farmers. Plugging machines greatly increased a previously required area, roughly twice its area (called the "acre-inch"), where the same number of gallons of water was transferred with substantially lowered displacement.
Yet now comes inevitable exhaustion resulting from depleting its main source - rainfall that filters through. Each year, heavy agricultural practices induce approximately a net 1.5 billion gallon discharge. At that rate of losing millions every day there is inevitable risk that within decades the supply of that lifesaving Ogallala is potentially depleted to 40 percent. There is clear consensus among scientists that they have merely fifty years left before depletion. A leading program, however, dubbed "groundwater sustainability districts" indicates that within their own initiative, there might be slow mitigating losses, an encouraging prognosis for those committed to saving water stocks.
Considering agricultural water rights were distributed quickly, before rules were set for conservation purposes - mainly protecting the Ogallala is to decide whether rural lands that historically had been the primary water user can afford or not to switch into crop varieties which require greater water use in cultivation. With added strain, water depletion risks accelerating ever-faster. Current research indicates massive future declines and alarming losses with this unchecked decline causing less chances of making realistic near-future predictions possible without the need to reconsider use plans radically changing.
The task to secure additional groundwater capacity, together with water from existing, alternative resources for our communities stands out as one of greatest priorities that a good majority of these leaders in groundwater conservation along with the conservation of the Ogallala need to emphasize for that purpose. Considering factors ultimately comprising Ogallala sustainability is hard, which might explain that that remains the best option that the citizens who form these local water districts are sure about.
