Ogallala Aquifer Case Study

434 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Quizlet ogallala aquifer

The Ogallala Aquifer was found in 1889. Since then, 170,000 wells have been made, just in SW Kansas. If we stop pumping right now it will take hundreds of years to refill. If we use it until it is completely dry, it will take 6,000 years to naturally refill. One of the main reasons the aquifer is drying up so fast is center pivot irrigation, which is used by a lot of farmers in SW Kansas. 50% of the water brought up through the wells to water crops is wasted. Water is being pumped out much faster than the Ogallala Aquifer can replenish, therefore dropping the water levels in the aquifer severely.

The Ogallala Aquifer began forming over 5 million years ago. It stretches beneath 174,000 square miles of land. Its depth reaches between 100 ft and 400 ft below the surface. The aquifer runs from west to east and fluids move from 25 to 300 feet per day. The average annual recharge rate of the aquifer is .85 in/year or 21.59 mm/year. …show more content…

If it dries up, it will cause farms to become uninhabitable. SW Kansas makes $5 billion off of the aquifer from farming. It also makes $384.4 billion off of the beef from the cattle that eat the crops. Another $1.75 billion is made from corn production. 4.3%, that is the amount of jobs in Kansas that are based off of the aquifer. The drying of the aquifer will affect all of Kansas, and all of the

Show More
Related

  • Colorado River Hydrosphere

    877 Words  | 2 Pages

    How is development creating longer term problems for groundwater storage ? Cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas are built in the desert. This whole process relies on water from two sources: 1. River water pumped from the Colorado system 2. Groundwater held in aquifers below ground.

    Read More

  • Case Study: Historical Geology

    1528 Words  | 4 Pages

    There are three clear landslides; the southwest landslide is stream-laid sand and gravel from the quaternary that was located on a steep slope resulting in gravity pulling sediments down the steep slope. The northeast landslide appears to be tuff sediments that have fallen upon biotite-quartz diorite rocks. The northwestern landslide is the largest of the landslides. The landslide occurred just south of the creek; erosion must have lowered the creeks elevation creating a steep decline resulting in Bena gravel to fall.

    Read More

  • Water Problems in Texas

    1966 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Times are a Changing in Texas

    665 Words  | 2 Pages

    With the changes coming from global warming and increased greenhouse gasses, there will be many impacts to Texas over the coming decades. One of these impacts is the effect on our water resources. Texas’ main source of fresh water is precipitation, coming almost completely from rainfall. With temperatures rising and with an expectation that precipitation levels will most likely drop in coming years, this combination will put great stress on our water reservoirs. If we continue our current usage rates of water and if recent climate changes continue to persist then we will see a huge decrease in our water reservoirs. Also, given that we are in a drought, it appears that conditions are getting worse every year, posing a serious problem for the future if this issue is not addressed now.

    Read More

  • The Deterioration of the Colorado River

    1463 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Colorado River is formed by small streams created by a huge amount of snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains. The ecology and flow of the river varies highly by region. The river is divided into two different regions, the Upper Basin and the Lower Basin. Beginning in the early 1900s, western states began to build dams in the Colorado river, diverting the water flow to fast growing cities like Los Angeles, San Diego, and Phoenix. The river now services over 30 million in the southwestern parts of the United States and Mexico (Patrick 1). Diverting the water of the nation’s seventh-longest river may be seen has a great accomplishment, however to others this is a great crime against nature. Over the past couple years the river has been running significantly low, since a drought has come up the southwest. At the lakes edge, “bathtub rings”, lines in the rock walls, can be seen showing the decrease in water level. It is recorded in some areas of the river that the water has lowered 130 feet since 2000. Some water resource officials say those areas will never be filled back to normal. The surrounding states must adjust to living with less water or further actions need to be taken to save the river’s water. There has been some talk about adding water to the river to replenish the river but nothing has hap...

    Read More

  • Klamath Falls Crisis

    2647 Words  | 6 Pages

    Regardless of what someone’s standing is on the water crisis debate, it is very apparent that there isn’t going to be any short term solution to this problem. As stated by Steve Kandra and another speaker, the way I understood it was that the current biological order is in place for ten years. This doesn’t leave any room for improvement. Another factor to consider is that there is 70% less rain fall this year compared to the average. This is going to be very difficult for them to keep the water levels stable without the irrigators even taking any water. On MSNBC, a reporter discussed the current conditions around the Klamath Basis as well as a number of other places throughout the west. Many states involved with the problem of dramatically less rain fall have already declared a drought for summer.

    Read More

  • Essay On Colorado River

    891 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Don’t waste that water! Kids in Africa don’t even have water to drink!” Almost every American has heard this saying before. We have heard this because there are water shortages in third world countries like Africa, as seen in the movie “Blue Gold”. But why have we developed this notion that there are only water shortages in third world countries? When in reality, there is a shortage of water right here in our home country. The Colorado River’s water is high in demand as it serves millions of people, powers industries, and is home to all different kinds of wildlife. The Colorado River will not be able to keep up with the increasing demand of water and soon enough the river will go dry. Organizations like the Colorado River Water Users Association are trying to change the way that the water is used and adjust how it is managed. The Colorado River is drying up and the western states are running out of water, however, public policy is trying to regulate and preserve the Colorado River to make it more sustainable in the future.

    Read More

  • Ogallala Aquifer Essay

    551 Words  | 2 Pages

    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 Americans because the aquifer system is responsible for supplying 80 percent of drinking water to the people who live inside the boundaries of High Plains region. This means that almost two million people are dependent on the Ogallala Aquifer for living.

    Read More

  • The Ogallala: Preserving the Great American Desert

    1871 Words  | 4 Pages

    To understand why the problem is important, it is necessary to know some basic facts about the Ogalla Aquifer. This underground reservoir covers 174,000 square miles. According to John Opie, author of Ogallala: Water for a Dry Land, the Ogallala was formed over the course of millions of years as the land flooded, dried out, and flooded again. As centuries passed, glaciers melted, carrying water, silt, and rocks from the Rockies down to the Great Plains to form the Ogalla. Dirt, clay, and rocks accumulated above it so that the waters of the Ogallala can now be reached at depths of 300 feet beneath the surface (29-35). Some people think that the Ogallala is a huge underground lake, but this idea is wrong. As Erla Zwingle puts it, an aquifer such as the Ogallala is like a "gigantic underground sponge"(83). The water fills in the spaces between the sand, silt, clay, and gravel that make up the Ogallala formation. This 1,000 feet; the average thickness, however, is about 200 feet (Zwingle 85). The aquifer reaches its deepest points under the state of Nebraska, which is not surprising because most of the because Ogallala's water lies beneath this state. The rest lies under Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming.

    Read More

  • Las Vegas's Water Shortage

    717 Words  | 2 Pages

    Groundwater remained the main supply until 1971 which was when Las Vegas became more dependent on Colorado River water due to the “Southern Nevada Water System” (Brown, n.d.; Larsen et al., 2015). Since then up to 90,000 acre-feet of groundwater has been pumped on a yearly basis, this value surpasses the natural groundwater recharge (Laczniak et al., n.d.). Rain as well as snow serves as the primary sources of groundwater recharge for the aquifers while precipitation plays a minor role (Laczniak et al., n.d.). Due to there not being balanced discharge and recharge this has led to subsidence and as a result of this subsidence the storage capacity of aquifers has decreased due to compaction (Laczniak et al., n.d.). It is estimated that 187,000 acre feet of storage capacity in the aquifers has been lost due to compaction (Laczniak et

    Read More

  • Principles Of Environmental Justice: Justice For The Environment

    822 Words  | 2 Pages

    This would handicap low income residents and independent farmers when trying to pay their water bills. Larger farming monopolies such as Monsanto would be able to afford the higher price, and buy out other farming competition. In addition, larger monopolies do not have the incentive to switch over to water conserving irrigation techniques, leading them to rely on independent less regulated wells in addition to the water the state designates for them. Excessive groundwater pumping could further decrease the water table level, cause more ground level subsidence, saltwater intrusion, increase drought in neighboring areas, increases risk for sinkholes, and cause a deficiency of groundwater available to surrounding farms and communities. If it reached an extreme enough level, they could be investigated for an environmental justice infringement for damages to the environment as well as abusing the shared natural

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Water Conservation

    1388 Words  | 3 Pages

    Water is essential for humanity’s survival, and even though the world is largely covered by water, only a small percentage is only usable for human consumption. Approximately, on average, 120,000 gallons of water are used annually for a single-family household (Galbraith). This alarming number could be reduced dramatically for the efforts of water conserving and lower water bill prices for families and subsequently saving money that could be used for other expenses. Thus, conserving water would prove beneficial and advantageous to not just Texas, but for everyone else as well. Although environmental policies have been not as popular with Congress and the state legislature, it is still an important problem to consider since there are only a limited amount of resources for public use, such as water.

    Read More

  • Importance Of Clean Water Essay

    1240 Words  | 3 Pages

    Clean and safe drinking water resources are becoming scarce as the population grows. The world is facing many problems, but the most important thing needed to survive, is water. Water is getting low in many countries, therefore residents are suffering the misfortune of not having the reliable source of clean water. Today many countries are having water shortages meaning rivers, lakes, streams and groundwater are not enough to rely on for supplying water demands. For example, California is facing a drastic water shortage, the natural water resources are not enough to fulfill their water demands.

    Read More

  • Water Scarcity and Possible Solutions

    1100 Words  | 3 Pages

    No matter how advanced our technology is, we are still not capable of generating water. We must utilize the existing water supply more efficiently in order to be sustainable. Many states in the United States believe that they are sustainable. However, polluted water habitats, drained aquifers and rivers, floods, and the salt intrusion show the exact opposite of what we believe.

    Read More

  • Water In South Africa Essay

    1929 Words  | 4 Pages

    In an age when man has forgotten his origins and is blind even to his most essential needs for survival, water along with other resources has become the victim of his indifference. South Africa, one of the most advanced countries in Africa, with a thriving economy based on technology and agriculture, is currently facing a downward slope in terms of water availability.

    Read More

More about Ogallala Aquifer Case Study

Open Document