Ogallala Aquifer Essay

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The Ogallala Aquifer is a shallow water table aquifer, an underground lake beneath the surface. It is located beneath the Great Plains in the United States. The Ogallala Aquifer is one of the largest aquifers and it covers a 175,000 miles squared area (Approximately). Its area spreads underneath eight states: South Dakota, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Colorado. It was given the name because of its type locality near the small town of Ogallala, Nebraska in 1898. The Ogallala Aquifer is very important to United States agriculture. Approximately 25 percent of the irrigated land in America overlies the aquifer. In addition, 30 percent of the ground water used for irrigation comes from this. The Ogallala Aquifer is crucial to some …show more content…

The estimated decrease is roughly 10 percent since then. Recently the decrease of volume has been increasing drastically. This includes a 2 percent loss from 2001 to 2010. There are even aquifer zones that are completely empty. The drastic changes in water level decline in the Ogallala Aquifer are impacting the United States severely. The impacts of the water level dropping more than 100 feet in some areas and the saturated thickness being reduced more than half in other areas are severe. Since the water level decline in the Ogallala aquifer the impacts include lowering of the water table, increased costs for the users of the water, reduction of water in lakes and streams, land subsidence, and deterioration of water quality. Lowering of the water table occurs because in order for water to be withdrawn from the ground, water must be pumped from a well that reaches below the water table. Since the water levels have declined so much the well owner has to deepen the well or drill a new well in order to lower the pump to reach the aquifer. The water levels declining may also cause the water yield for the well to

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