Ogallala aquifer

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">this is for groundwater in general
</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><div><a href="https://www.texasobserver.org/rick-perry-exports-his-pay-to-play-politics-to-ukraine/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.texasobserver.org/rick-perry-exports-his-pay-to-play-politics-to-ukraine/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">11/13/19</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>it appears that <a href="https://www.texasobserver.org/tag/rick-perry/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(192, 0, 0);">Rick Perry</a> exported his pay-to-play politics from the Texas governor’s mansion to the notoriously corrupt </b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Ukrainian oil and gas sector, </b>where, as President Donald Trump’s energy secretary, he has played an outsized role in opening up the industry to private investors.</font><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 29px; padding: 0px; line-height: 34px; width: 700px; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/6d8ae551fb884371a2a592ed85a74426" target="blank" title="Opens in a new window" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(192, 0, 0);">reported</a> on Monday, two of Perry’s longtime political patrons won what could be an immensely profitable drilling contract on a sprawling patch of land owned by the Ukrainian government.</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 29px; padding: 0px; line-height: 34px; width: 700px; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Per the AP, Perry traveled to Ukraine to attend the inauguration of President Volodymyr Zelensky in May. During the trip, Perry urged Zelensky to appoint all new members to the advisory board of the country’s <b>massive state-owned natural gas company, Naftogaz,</b>helpfully giving him a list of recommended energy advisors. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At the top was Michael Bleyzer, a silver-maned <b>Ukrainian</b>-American who has <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/The-anti-Putin-Houstonian-tangled-in-the-Ukraine-14515890.php#" target="blank" title="Opens in a new window" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(192, 0, 0);">made a name for himself</a> in Houston as an eccentric oil and gas investor. He also happens to be a longtime benefactor of Perry’s political career.</span></font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 29px; padding: 0px; line-height: 34px; width: 700px; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In the meeting with Zelensky, the energy secretary emphasized his friendship with Bleyzer. A week later, Bleyzer and his business partner Alex Cranberg, also a longtime Perry backer, filed a bid to drill on a government-controlled plot. They were ultimately awarded the contract despite offering several million dollars less than the only other bidder.</font></p><section class="clearfix" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><aside class="pull-quote centered" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 60px; margin-top: 25px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The revelations that Perry engaged in what looks to be a classic example of political cronyism should be unsurprising to those familiar with Governor Goodhair’s tenure.</font></span></aside></section><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 29px; padding: 0px; line-height: 34px; width: 700px; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since 2017, Perry has played the role of international salesman for the American energy industry, particularly as an enthusiastic hawker of liquified natural gas, which he famously dubbed “freedom gas.” But as one of the Trump administration’s so-called “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/10/15/770482694/wh-replaced-pro-ukraine-staff-with-three-amigos-congress-reportedly-told" target="blank" title="Opens in a new window" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(192, 0, 0);">three amigos</a>” who have led the United States’ diplomatic efforts in Ukraine, Perry is now embroiled in the impeachment inquiry into the president. He refused to comply with House Democrats’ subpoenas for documents related to his meetings with the Ukraine president and has declined to testify before committee members leading the impeachment investigation. Reports of his donors’ receiving a lucrative drilling contract in Ukraine now only heightens the scrutiny on Perry.</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 29px; padding: 0px; line-height: 34px; width: 700px; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The revelations that Perry engaged in what looks to be a classic example of political cronyism should be unsurprising to those familiar with <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2011/08/the_5_funniest_things_molly_ivins_said_about_rick_perry/" target="blank" title="Opens in a new window" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(192, 0, 0);">Governor Goodhair</a>’s tenure.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Over his 12 years running Texas, he developed a reputation as a brazen purveyor of pay-to-play politics, shamelessly installing his biggest political donors in powerful positions of public trust.</span></font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 29px; padding: 0px; line-height: 34px; width: 700px; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Of the 4,000 jobs that he filled during his gubernatorial career, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rick-perry-fourth-political-appointments-campaign-donors/story?id=14324227" target="blank" title="Opens in a new window" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(192, 0, 0);">more than a quarter</a> of them went to political donors—many of them woefully unqualified. From 2001 to 2010, those appointees gave Perry <a href="http://info.tpj.org/reports/pdf/Perry%20Patronage2010.pdf" target="blank" title="Opens in a new window" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(192, 0, 0);">more than $17 million</a>, about 20 percent of his total haul, according to Texans for Public Justice.</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 29px; padding: 0px; line-height: 34px; width: 700px; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In turn, those donors were treated kindly by the Perry government. In 2011, Texas billionaire </span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Harold Simmons, who had pumped $1.2 million into Perry’s coffers, got his radioactive waste dump permit <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-08-31/perry-s-friends-in-texas-discover-donations-dovetail-with-state-contracts" target="blank" title="Opens in a new window" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(192, 0, 0);">greenlit</a> by Perry</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">’s appointees on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> despite objections from some staffers.</span></font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 29px; padding: 0px; line-height: 34px; width: 700px; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Perry also used massive economic development slush funds to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/us/politics/21donate.html" target="blank" title="Opens in a new window" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(192, 0, 0);">shovel money back</a> to his donors. In 2010, the <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Observer </i><a href="https://www.texasobserver.org/slush-fun/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(192, 0, 0);">found</a> that 20 of the 55 companies that received grant money from Perry’s Texas Enterprise Fund—a state warchest for corporate economic incentives—had contributed to either his campaign or the Republican Governors Association that he helmed. </span>Those companies had a combined $2.2 million in political contributions and received a windfall of $175 million in taxpayer-financed incentives. More than <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/rick-perrys-energy-grants-in-texas" target="blank" title="Opens in a new window" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(192, 0, 0);">$16 million</a> from his new Emerging Technology Fund was given to Perry’s major donors. These programs have notoriously <a href="http://info.tpj.org/watchyourassets/enterprise4/ConJob.rpt.pr.pdf" target="blank" title="Opens in a new window" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(192, 0, 0);">little accountability</a> when it comes to job-creation metrics, often falling far short of original promises. One $30 million grant went to an energy group that <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/95448/rick-perry-texas-economic-development-funds" target="blank" title="Opens in a new window" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(192, 0, 0);">never existed</a>.</font></p><section class="clearfix" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><aside class="pull-quote centered" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 60px; margin-top: 25px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In hindsight, it was a small miracle that Perry made it this long without getting stuck in the swamp.</font></span></aside></section><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 29px; padding: 0px; line-height: 34px; width: 700px; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bleyzer and Cranberg—currently embroiled in Perry’s latest scandal—have deep ties to Texas and Perry. In 2009, then-Governor Perry appointed Bleyzer to the advisory board for the Emerging Technology Fund, his new tax-incentive fund for startup ventures. The following year, Bleyzer cut Perry’s campaign a $30,000 check.</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 29px; padding: 0px; line-height: 34px; width: 700px; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Cranberg—an energy investor, longtime GOP mega-donor, and University of Texas at Austin graduate—was appointed to his alma mater’s board of regents by Perry in 2011.</b>That same year, Perry’s campaign paid $16,000 to Cranberg’s company for use of his private luxury jet. During his controversial tenure on the board of regents, Cranberg was seen as “the ringleader of a bloc of regents” who were influenced by outside interests that aimed to “stage an attack on academic research” and coordinate an ouster of UT’s president, the <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Texas Tribune </i><a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2011/06/12/controversial-ut-regent-hopes-to-push-reset-button/" target="blank" title="Opens in a new window" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(192, 0, 0);">reported</a> in 2011. Perry’s former campaign manager Jeff Miller is now a lobbyist for Cranberg’s company and has visited Perry’s Energy Department at least a dozen times, according to the AP.</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 29px; padding: 0px; line-height: 34px; width: 700px; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perry’s office said he is only doing his job as a booster for American energy interests. “What he did not do is advocate for the business interests of any one individual or company,” Shaylyn Hynes, the Energy Department press secretary, told the AP. Bleyzer and Cranberg also denied any wrongdoing.</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 29px; padding: 0px; line-height: 34px; width: 700px; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In hindsight, it was a small miracle that Perry made it this long without getting stuck in the swamp. He was almost able to slip out the back door while he was still in good standing as a member of the federal civil servantry. Last month, just as the Ukraine heat was turning up, he <a href="https://www.energy.gov/articles/secretary-perry-announces-resignation-effective-later-year" target="blank" title="Opens in a new window" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(192, 0, 0);">announced</a> that he was resigning in December.</font></p><p class="p1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 29px; padding: 0px; line-height: 34px; width: 700px; max-width: 700px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Helping two political pals secure a massive contract in Ukraine is another example of the pay-to-play approach that served Perry so well in Texas; this time, it’s at a global level. Perry has <a href="https://ua.usembassy.gov/remarks-by-secretary-perry/" target="blank" title="Opens in a new window" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(192, 0, 0);">talked</a> about his aspirations for Ukraine to become “the Texas of Europe.” On the corporate cronyism front, he may just have succeeded.</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-08-31/perry-s-friends-in-texas-discover-donations-dovetail-with-state-contracts"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-08-31/perry-s-friends-in-texas-discover-donations-dovetail-with-state-contracts</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Business</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Perry’s Texas Friends Find Donations Dovetail With Contracts</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alison Fitzgerald</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When Texas billionaire Harold Simmons wanted to build a radioactive waste dump, one data point that would loom large in the permitting process wasn’t required on the application: He is a major donor to Governor Rick Perry.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Everybody was aware that this was an important item for the people that were seeking the license as well as for the governor’s office,” said Larry Soward, a Perry-appointed, Republican member of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality at the time of Simmons’s permit application.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Simmons, who has donated more than $1.2 million to Perry’s campaigns, was granted the permit over the objections of some TCEQ staffers concerned the site threatened the Ogallala Aquifer, a water source for much of the plains.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At least three commission employees resigned in protest and Soward voted against the permit. Meanwhile, a state employee who advanced the permit became a lobbyist for the company a month after it was approved.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The permit process for the site, run by Simmons’s company Waste Control Specialists LLC, a subsidiary of the publicly traded Valhi Inc., is one example of how Perry’s donors’ close ties to the governor can influence government grants, appointments and permits.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perry’s Aug. 13 entry into the 2012 Republican presidential primary is casting new light on his record and adversaries are using it to challenge his candidacy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Political Attacks</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“As Americans look past his swagger, they’ll see he represents more of the same lobbyist-run politics as usual that they despise,” said Rodell Mollineau, president of American Bridge 21st Century, a Washington-based Democratic opposition research group. Perry spokesman Mark Miner didn’t respond to requests for comment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jim Henson, project director at the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, said it isn’t unusual in the Lone Star State for governors to favor business allies.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Perry’s accumulated a long list of these stories,” said Henson. “It’s always discomforting to look at these things, when somebody is on one spreadsheet for campaign donations and then shows up again on another spreadsheet for government contracts or political appointments,” he said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Waste Control Specialists spokesman Chuck McDonald said no favoritism was shown and the review was more rigorous to avoid any appearance of impropriety.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Since the owner of the company is a well-known, longtime, multi-decade contributor to all conservative office holders, that made everybody want to make sure that the process was thorough and complete,” McDonald said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perry Record</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perry has a public record of rewarding his political donors with jobs and state contracts. He has appointed about 4,000 people -- including many donors -- to commissions, boards and other posts, according to Texans for Public Justice, an Austin-based, nonpartisan group that tracks state political donations.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last week, Perry named James Lee, president of JHL Capital Holdings, to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Lee, who served on Perry’s 2011 inaugural committee, has donated more than $190,000 to Perry’s campaigns during the last decade, according to Texans for Public Justice.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The governor also appointed Dan Friedkin, chief executive officer of The Friedkin Group, chairman of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission. Friedkin is the third most generous individual donor to Perry, contributing more than $750,000 during the last decade.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Business Grants</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to appointments, the governor controls two business development funds to lure companies to Texas, help them grow, and develop new industries. The funds are administered by the governor’s office and Perry has final approval of all awards.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Texas Enterprise Fund has distributed more than $400 million in grants to 71 companies since 2004, according to a state auditor report. Perry donors have been recipients, including an April 2006 $500,000 grant to Sanderson Farms, whose Chief Executive Officer Joe Sanderson has given Perry $165,000 in campaign contributions.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Simmons, chairman of Contran Corp., a holding company that owns Waste Control Specialists, is the governor’s second largest individual donor.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition to giving more than a million dollars to the governor’s campaigns, Simmons, 80, donated at total of $600,000 to the Republican Governors Association when Perry served in its leadership in 2007, 2008 and 2011, according to data compiled for Bloomberg by the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based group that tracks political money. As Perry faced both a primary and general election challenge last year, Simmons gave the RGA $1.1 million, funds the organization used to help re-elect its members.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Swift Boat Group</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Simmons has been a Republican political benefactor for years. He donated $4 million to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that questioned Democratic nominee John Kerry’s Vietnam war service in the 2004 presidential election. Last year, he gave $1 million to American Crossroads, a group founded with help from former Bush adviser Karl Rove, according to the center.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Simmons’ expansion into radioactive waste storage began in Texas in 2003, when his company urged state lawmakers to pass legislation allowing a private company to build and run a low-level disposal site that would be owned by the state, according to McDonald. Perry signed it into law on June 20, 2003.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Three Applications</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A year later, Waste Control Specialists, which ran an existing hazardous waste site in Andrews County in West Texas, applied for three permits to dispose of radioactive waste.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The plan was to build three facilities on the 1,300-acre site in Andrews County. One facility would take waste from federal government national labs and military bases; another would take waste from nuclear plants, hospitals and other sites in Texas and Vermont, as part of a joint disposal agreement; and a third site would dispose of radioactive “by-products” from anywhere.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The permits had to be approved by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, whose three commissioners were all appointed by Perry.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Environmentalists raised concerns because the site was near the Ogallala Aquifer, which provides water for drinking and agriculture from Texas to Nebraska. The engineers and geologists reviewing the application for the commission said it didn’t address those water contamination concerns. Glenn Lewis, part of the TCEQ team that reviewed the permit, called the initial application “laughably deficient.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Texas Water Board</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to Lewis, the initial maps from the Texas Water Board -- where five of the six members were appointed by Perry - - showed the proposed disposal site was on top of the aquifer. Waste Control Specialists drilled 560 borings and 450 monitoring wells mapping the water and shared the data with the water board. In 2006, the water board changed the maps, moving the Oglalla’s boundaries away from the Waste Control Specialists’ site.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The new maps didn’t resolve the issue for the commission’s engineers and geologists, who were still unsure the facility could prevent radiation contamination of groundwater.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Aug. 14, 2007, the review team wrote a memo explaining their concerns that concluded, “Issuance of a license for the proposed facility cannot be recommended.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Two months later, the executive director of the agency, Glenn Shankle, drafted the first permit and recommended commission approval. Two agreed, and Soward voted no.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Permit Opposition</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In an interview, Soward said he hadn’t concluded the facility shouldn’t be located in Andrews County. He was opposed because of outstanding questions about the geology and the process.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“There was an overriding issue out there that the agency had somehow improperly handled the applications,” Soward said. “I thought this whole matter should be subject to a very open and involved contested case hearing to shine the brightest possible light on these issues.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Three members of the technical review team, including Lewis, resigned or took early retirement to protest the permit approval. Soward, who had served as a deputy to Perry when the governor was agriculture commissioner, didn’t seek another appointment to the commission and said he is no longer close to Perry.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Shankle said he never saw the staff memo that recommended against permit approval, and he said he was wasn’t pressured by the governor to advance the permit. He began talks with Waste Control Specialists about a job during the permitting process. The commission approved the permits six months after he left, he said. A month later, he became a lobbyist for the company.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We agreed that we would not come to an agreement about whether I was going to work with them until after the commission decided on the permit. There was no influence whatsoever in this matter,” Shankle said in an interview.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/farmers-are-drawing-groundwater-giant-ogallala-aquifer-faster-nature-replaces-it"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/farmers-are-drawing-groundwater-giant-ogallala-aquifer-faster-nature-replaces-it</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Every summer the U.S. Central Plains go dry, leading farmers to tap into groundwater to irrigate sorghum, soy, cotton, wheat and corn and maintain large herds of cattle and hogs. As the heat rises, <a href="https://www.hutchnews.com/news/20180415/states-of-our-water-eight-states-over-ogallala-come-together-for-first-ogallala-water-summit" style="text-decoration-line: none;">anxious irrigators</a> gather to discuss whether and how they should adopt more stringent conservation measures.</font></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They know that if they do not conserve, the Ogallala Aquifer, the source of their prosperity, will go dry. The Ogallala, also known as the High Plains Aquifer, is one of the largest underground freshwater sources in the world. It underlies an estimated 174,000 square miles of the Central Plains and <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/08/vanishing-aquifer-interactive-map/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">holds as much water as Lake Huron</a>. It irrigates portions of eight states, from Wyoming, South Dakota and Nebraska in the north to Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas in the south.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the current drought plaguing the region is unusually strong and persistent, driving farmers to rely more on the aquifer and sharpening the debate over its future. A current assessment by the <a href="https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">U.S. Drought Monitor</a>, published by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shows large swaths of the southern plains experiencing <a href="https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap.aspx" style="text-decoration-line: none;">drought ranging from “severe” to “exceptional</a>.”</font></p><div style="margin-bottom: 20px;"><figure class="align-center zoomable" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230802/original/file-20180806-191041-x2ss0m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230802/original/file-20180806-191041-x2ss0m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" style="border: none;" /></font></a></p><figcaption /></figure><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These worrisome prospects form the dramatic backdrop to “<a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/university-of-nebraska-press/9780803296978/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Ogallala: Water for a Dry Land</a>,” now out in its third edition. In it, my fellow historians <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-opie-59362ba9/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">John Opie</a>and <a href="https://www.angelo.edu/content/profiles/82-kenna-renee-archer" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Kenna Lang Archer</a> and I set current debates over the Ogallala Aquifer in the context of the region’s equally conflicted past.</font></p><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Draining the source</font></h2><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the 1880s, farmers in the region asserted that there was a steady movement of water beneath their feet, which they called “underflow,” from the Rockies east. Geologist F.N. Darton of the U.S. Geological Survey located the first outlines of the aquifer near Ogallala, Nebraska. His discovery nourished the ambitions of farmers and irrigation promoters. One booster, William E. Smythe, visited Garden City, Kansas, and cheered the irrigated future. Pumping underground water, he told his audience, would build “little homes of pleasing architecture. We will surround them with pretty lawns and fringe them with trees and hedges … in a new Kansas dedicated to industrial independence.”</font></p><figure class="align-right zoomable" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230675/original/file-20180806-41354-1ra4r5j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230675/original/file-20180806-41354-1ra4r5j.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" style="border: none;" /></font></a><figcaption><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="caption">Ogallala Aquifer water-level changes from predevelopment (about 1950) to 2015.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.usgs.gov/news/usgs-high-plains-aquifer-groundwater-levels-continue-decline" style="text-decoration-line: none;">USGS</a></span></font></figcaption></figure><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That bucolic vision took decades to realize. Windmills could only pump so much water, which constrained the amount of land farmers could put into production. And the Ogallala’s sand and gravel composition slowed the downward flow of surface waters to refill it, even in wet seasons.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This did not matter until farmers started adopting better drilling technology, gas-powered water pumps and high-tech irrigation systems after World War II. These advances turned the Central Plains into the world’s breadbasket and meat market, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-ogallala-aquifer/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">annually generating</a> US$20 billion worth of foodstuffs.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As more pumps were drilled into the aquifer to capture its flow, some started to come up dry, which led to more drilling and pumping. Between the late 19th century and 2005, the U.S. Geological Survey <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2007/3029/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">estimates</a> irrigation depleted the aquifer by 253 million acre-feet – about 9 percent of its total volume. And the pace is accelerating. Analyzing federal data, The Denver Post found that the aquifer <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2017/10/08/colorado-eastern-plains-groundwater-running-dry/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">shrank twice as fast from 2011 through 2017</a> as it had over the previous 60 years.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The current drought is only adding to these woes. University of California-Irvine hydrologist Jay Famiglietti has identified the Ogallala region and California’s Central Valley as <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-famiglietti-shifting-water-sources-20180610-story.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">the two most overheated and water-starved areas in the United States</a>.</font></p><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin-top: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Relying on technological fixes</font></h2><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This is not the first time that humans have pushed ecosystems on the Central Plains to the breaking point. Starting in the late 19th century, settler-colonists plowed up native grasses that protected the soil. When a series of intense droughts struck in the 1930s, dried-out topsoil was primed to erode in the infamous<b style=""> Dust Bowl</b>. Howling windstorms widely known as “black blizzards” blotted out the sun, blowing away exposed soil and displacing much of the human population.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Farmers who hung on through World War II placed their hope in highly engineered solutions, such as high-powered pumps and center-pivot irrigation systems. These innovations, along with ongoing experiments to determine the most profitable kind of crops to grow and animals to raise, profoundly altered global food systems and the lives and livelihoods of Plains farmers.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Today some advocates support a similar fix for farmers’ water needs: The so-called <a href="https://kcur.org/post/are-billions-needed-cross-state-canal-save-western-kansas#stream/0" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Great Canal of Kansas</a>, which would pump vast quantities of water from the Missouri River in the east over 360 miles west to the most arid Kansas counties. However, this project could <a href="https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/KansasAqueduct_DRAFT_Final_1982_Update_011615.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;">cost up to $20 billion to build and require annual energy outlays of $500 million</a>. It is unlikely to be constructed, and would be a Band-aid solution if it were.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> In my view, Plains farmers cannot afford to continue pushing land and water resources beyond their limits – especially in light of <a href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/49.10/climate-change-is-shrinking-the-wests-water-supply" style="text-decoration-line: none;">climate change’s cumulative impact</a> on the Central Plains. For example, a <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aat2380" style="text-decoration-line: none;">recent study</a> posits that as droughts bake the land, lack of moisture in the soil actually spikes temperatures. And as the air heats up, it further desiccates the soil.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b style="">This vicious cycle will accelerate the rate of depletion.</b> And once the Ogallala is emptied, it could take <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/farmers-deplete-fossil-water-in-worlds-breadbaskets/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">6,000 years to recharge naturally</a>.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> In the words of </span><a href="https://myfarmlife.com/crop-care/saving-ogallala-aquifer/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">Brent Rogers</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, a director of Kansas Groundwater Management District 4, there are “too many straws in too small of a cup.”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some far-sighted farmers are responding to these interlocking challenges. Even as they pursue <a href="https://twri.tamu.edu/docs/education/2012/em115.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;">efficiencies in irrigation</a>, many are shifting from water-intense crops like cotton to wheat. Still others, notably in west Texas, are converting back to non-irrigated <a href="https://www.wtamu.edu/academics/dryland-agriculture-institute.aspx" style="text-decoration-line: none;">dryland agriculture</a> – a recognition of the stark limitations of irrigation dependency. Farmers who are <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/farmers-deplete-fossil-water-in-worlds-breadbaskets/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">depleting other aquifers</a>in Latin America, eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia could face similar choices.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><img alt="The Conversation" height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100735/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" width="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0px !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0px !important; text-shadow: none !important;" /></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Whether these initiatives will become widespread, or can sustain agriculture on the Central Plains, is an open question. But should instead farmers and ranchers drain the Ogallala Aquifer in pursuit of quick profits, the region may never recover.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/char-miller-217757" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Char Miller</a>, W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and History, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/pomona-college-1891" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Pomona College</a></em></font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ogallala Aquifer</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> is a shallow </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_table" title="Water table" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">water table</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquifer" title="Aquifer" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">aquifer</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> surrounded by sand, silt, clay and gravel located beneath the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Plains" title="Great Plains" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Great Plains</a> in the United States. One of the world's largest aquifers, it underlies an area of approximately 174,000 sq mi (450,000 km<sup style="line-height: 1;">2</sup>) in portions of eight <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.state" title="U.S. state" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">states</a> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Dakota" title="South Dakota" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">South Dakota</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebraska" title="Nebraska" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Nebraska</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming" title="Wyoming" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Wyoming</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado" title="Colorado" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Colorado</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas" title="Kansas" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Kansas</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma" title="Oklahoma" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Oklahoma</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico" title="New Mexico" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">New Mexico</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas" title="Texas" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Texas</a></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">).</span><sup id="cite_ref-mcguire07_1-0" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-mcguire07-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[1]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> It was named in 1898 by geologist </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Horatio_Darton" title="Nelson Horatio Darton" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">N. H. Darton</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> from its </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_locality(geology)" title="Type locality (geology)" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">type locality</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> near the town of </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala,Nebraska" title="Ogallala, Nebraska" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Ogallala, Nebraska</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. The aquifer is part of the High Plains Aquifer System, and rests on the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Formation" title="Ogallala Formation" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Ogallala Formation</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, which is the principal geologic unit underlying 80% of the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Plains(United_States)" title="High Plains (United States)" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">High Plains</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span><sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-BuchananEtAl_3-0" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-BuchananEtAl-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a></sup></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Large scale extraction for agricultural purposes started after World War II due partially to </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_pivot_irrigation" title="Center pivot irrigation" style="background: none; text-decoration-line: none;">center pivot irrigation</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> and to the adaptation of automotive engines for groundwater wells.</span><sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a></sup><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Today about 27% of the irrigated land in the entire United States lies over the aquifer, which yields about 30% of the ground water used for irrigation in the United States.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[5]</a></sup> The aquifer is at risk for over-extraction and pollution. Since 1950, agricultural irrigation has reduced the saturated volume of the aquifer by an estimated 9%. Once depleted, the aquifer will take over 6,000 years to replenish naturally through rainfall.<sup id="cite_ref-plumer_6-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-plumer-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[6]</a></sup></span></font></p><p style="margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The aquifer system supplies drinking water to 82% of the 2.3 million people</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> (1990 census) who live within the boundaries of the High Plains study area.</span><sup id="cite_ref-dennehy_7-0" class="reference" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-dennehy-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a></sup></font></p><div id="toc" class="toc" style="background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); border: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); padding: 7px; display: table; zoom: 1;"><input type="checkbox" role="button" id="toctogglecheckbox" class="toctogglecheckbox" style="direction: ltr; position: absolute; opacity: 0; display: none;" /><div class="toctitle" lang="en" dir="ltr" style="direction: ltr; text-align: center;">
</div><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0.3em 0px; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#General_characteristics" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">General characteristics</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#Aquifer_water_balance" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Aquifer water balance</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#Groundwater_recharge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Groundwater recharge</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-4" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#Groundwater_discharge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2.2</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Groundwater discharge</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#Change_in_groundwater_storage" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2.3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Change in groundwater storage</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#Accelerated_decline_in_aquifer_storage" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">2.4</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Accelerated decline in aquifer storage</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#Environmental_controversies" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">3</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Environmental controversies</span></font></a><ul style="list-style-type: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: none;"><li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-8" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#Proposed_Keystone_XL_Pipeline" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">3.1</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Proposed Keystone XL Pipeline</span></font></a></li></ul></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-9" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#Conservation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">4</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">Conservation</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-10" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#See_also" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">5</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">See also</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-11" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#References" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">6</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">References</span></font></a></li><li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-12" style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#External_links" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="tocnumber" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0.5em;">7</span><span class="toctext" style="display: table-cell; text-decoration: inherit;">External links</span></font></a></li></ul></div><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="General_characteristics">General characteristics</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ogallala_Aquifer&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: General characteristics" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h2><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The deposition of aquifer material dates back two to six million years, from the late <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miocene" title="Miocene" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Miocene</a> to early <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliocene" title="Pliocene" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Pliocene</a> ages when the southern <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountains" title="Rocky Mountains" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Rocky Mountains</a> were still tectonically active. From the uplands to the west, rivers and streams cut channels in a generally west to east or southeast direction. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erosion" title="Erosion" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Erosion</a> of the Rockies provided <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alluvial" class="mw-redirect" title="Alluvial" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">alluvial</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolian_processes" title="Aeolian processes" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">aeolian</a> sediment that filled the ancient channels and eventually covered the entire area of the present-day aquifer, forming the water-bearing Ogallala Formation.<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-9" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[9]</a></sup> In that respect, the process is similar to those currently prevailing in other modern rivers of the area, such as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_River" title="Kansas River" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Kansas River</a> and its tributaries. The major differences are time and depth.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The depth of the Ogallala varies with the shape of then-prevailing surface, being deepest where it fills ancient valleys and channels. The Ogallala Formation consists mostly of coarse sedimentary rocks in its deeper sections, which transition upward into finer-grained material.<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-10" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[10]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The water-saturated thickness of the Ogallala Formation ranges from a few feet to more than 1,000 feet (300 m) and is generally greater in the Northern Plains.<sup id="cite_ref-11" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-11" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[11]</a></sup>The depth of the water below the surface of the land ranges from almost 400 feet (120 m) in parts of the north to between 100 and 200 feet (30 and 61 m) throughout much of the south. Present-day recharge of the aquifer with fresh water occurs at an exceedingly slow rate, suggesting that much of the water in its <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porosity" title="Porosity" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">pore</a> spaces is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleowater" class="mw-redirect" title="Paleowater" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">paleowater</a>, dating back to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_glacial_period" title="Last glacial period" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">most recent ice age</a> and probably earlier.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Groundwater within the Ogallala generally flows from west to east at an average rate of a foot per day. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_conductivity" title="Hydraulic conductivity" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Hydraulic conductivity</a>, or the ability for a fluid (water) to move through porous material, ranges from 25 to 300 feet (7.6 to 91.4 m) per day.<sup id="cite_ref-12" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-12" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[12]</a></sup> Water quality within the Ogallala varies with the highest quality for drinking and irrigation in the northern region while the southern region had the poorest.<sup id="cite_ref-Gurdak_13-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-Gurdak-13" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[13]</a></sup> Human and natural processes over the past 60 to 70 years, including irrigation density, climate, and nitrogen applications, have caused higher concentrations of contaminants including nitrates. Nitrate levels generally meet USGS water quality standards, but continue to gradually increase over time.<sup id="cite_ref-Gurdak_13-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-Gurdak-13" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[13]</a></sup> This trend can impact the future groundwater sustainability for portions of the aquifer.</font></p><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Aquifer_water_balance">Aquifer water balance</span></font></h2><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An aquifer is a groundwater storage reservoir in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_cycle" title="Water cycle" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">water cycle</a>. While groundwater is a renewable source, reserves replenish relatively slowly. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Geological_Survey" class="mw-redirect" title="US Geological Survey" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">USGS</a> has performed several studies of the aquifer, to determine what is coming in (groundwater recharge from the surface), what is leaving (water pumped out and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseflow" title="Baseflow" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">baseflow</a> to streams), and what the net changes in storage are (rise, fall or no change).</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Withdrawals from the Ogallala Aquifer for irrigation amounted to 26 km<sup style="line-height: 1;">3</sup> (21,000,000 acre⋅ft) in 2000. As of 2005, the total depletion since before development amounted to 253,000,000 acre feet (312 km<sup style="line-height: 1;">3</sup>).<sup id="cite_ref-mcguire07_1-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-mcguire07-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[1]</a></sup> Some estimates indicate the remaining volume could be depleted as soon as 2028. Many farmers in the Texas <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Plains(United_States)" title="High Plains (United States)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">High Plains</a>, which rely particularly on the underground source, are now turning away from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrigated_agriculture" class="mw-redirect" title="Irrigated agriculture" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">irrigated agriculture</a> as they become aware of the hazards of overpumping.<sup id="cite_ref-14" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-14" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[14]</a></sup></font></p><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Groundwater_recharge">Groundwater recharge</span></font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The rate at which recharge water enters the aquifer is limited by several factors. Much of the plains region is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steppe" title="Steppe" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">semiarid</a>, with steady winds that hasten evaporation of surface water and precipitation. In many locations, the aquifer is overlain, in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vadose_zone" title="Vadose zone" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">vadose zone</a>, with a shallow layer of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliche" title="Caliche" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">caliche</a> that is practically <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_conductivity" title="Hydraulic conductivity" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">impermeable</a>; this limits the amount of water able to recharge the aquifer from the land surface. However, the soil of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playa_lakes" class="mw-redirect" title="Playa lakes" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">playa lakes</a> is different and not lined with caliche, making these some of the few areas where the aquifer can recharge. The destruction of playas by farmers and development decreases the available recharge area. The prevalence of the caliche is partly due to the ready evaporation of soil moisture and the semiarid climate; the aridity increases the amount of evaporation, which in turn increases the amount of caliche in the soil. Both mechanisms reduce the amount of recharge water that reaches the water table.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Recharge in the aquifer ranges from 0.024 inches (0.61 mm) per year in parts of Texas and New Mexico to 6 inches (150 mm) per year in south-central Kansas.<sup id="cite_ref-15" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-15" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[15]</a></sup></font></p><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Groundwater_discharge">Groundwater discharge</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ogallala_Aquifer&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Groundwater discharge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h3><div class="thumb tright" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); clear: right; float: right; margin: 0.5em 0px 1.3em 1.4em; width: auto;"><div class="thumbinner" style="min-width: 100px; border: 1px solid rgb(200, 204, 209); padding: 3px; background-color: rgb(248, 249, 250); text-align: center; overflow: hidden; width: 222px;">
<div class="thumbcaption" style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; padding: 3px; text-align: left;"><div class="magnify" style="float: right; margin-left: 3px; margin-right: 0px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Crops_Kansas_AST_20010624.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" csvg="Csvg" viewbox="%220" width="width" height="height" cg="Cg" id="%22smallbox%22" fill="%22%23fff%22" stroke="%22%23000%22%3E" cpath="Cpath" d="%22M-1.499" h10.99v7.919h-10.99z="h10.99v7.919h-10.99z" e="E" h5.943v4.904h-5.943z="h5.943v4.904h-5.943z" c="C" g="g" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" user-select="user-select" none="none" xmlns="%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22" xmlns:data="data" /></div><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Crops_Kansas_AST_20010624.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: linear-gradient(transparent, transparent), url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" csvg="Csvg" viewbox="%220" width="width" height="height" cg="Cg" id="%22smallbox%22" fill="%22%23fff%22" stroke="%22%23000%22%3E" cpath="Cpath" d="%22M-1.499" h10.99v7.919h-10.99z="h10.99v7.919h-10.99z" e="E" h5.943v4.904h-5.943z="h5.943v4.904h-5.943z" c="C" g="g" display="display" block="block" text-indent="text-indent" px="px" white-space="white-space" nowrap="nowrap" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" user-select="user-select" none="none" xmlns="%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22" xmlns:data="data"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA </font></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Spaceborne_Thermal_Emission_and_Reflection_Radiometer" title="Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">ASTER</a> image of a roughly 557 mi<sup style="line-height: 1;">2</sup> area of fields (1443 km<sup style="line-height: 1;">2</sup>) in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas" title="Kansas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Kansas</a> watered from the Ogallala Aquifer with center pivot irrigation systems</font></div></div></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The regions overlying the Ogallala Aquifer are some of the most productive regions in the United States for ranching <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livestock" title="Livestock" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">livestock</a>, and growing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize" title="Maize" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">corn</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat" title="Wheat" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">wheat</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soybeans" class="mw-redirect" title="Soybeans" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">soybeans</a>. The success of large-scale farming in areas that do not have adequate <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precipitation(meteorology)" class="mw-redirect" title="Precipitation (meteorology)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">precipitation</a> and do not always have perennial <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_water" title="Surface water" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">surface water</a> for diversion has depended heavily on pumping groundwater for irrigation.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Early settlers of the semiarid High Plains were plagued by crop failures due to cycles of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drought" title="Drought" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">drought</a>, culminating in the disastrous <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl" title="Dust Bowl" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Dust Bowl</a> of the 1930s. Only after <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II" title="World War II" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">World War II</a>, when center pivot irrigation became available, was the land mass of the High Plains aquifer system transformed into one of the most agriculturally productive regions in the world.</font></p><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Change_in_groundwater_storage">Change in groundwater storage</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ogallala_Aquifer&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Change in groundwater storage" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ground water levels decline when the rate of extraction by irrigation exceeds the rate of recharge. At places, the water table was measured to drop more than 5 ft (1.5 m) per year at the time of maximum extraction. In extreme cases, the deepening of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_well" title="Water well" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">wells</a> was required to reach the steadily falling water table. In the 21st century, recognition of the significance of the aquifer has led to increased coverage from regional and international journalists.<sup id="cite_ref-16" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-16" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[16]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-17" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-17" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[17]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-18" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-18" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[18]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-19" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-19" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[19]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USGS" class="mw-redirect" title="USGS" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">USGS</a> estimated that total water storage was about 2,925,000,000 acre feet (3,608 km<sup style="line-height: 1;">3</sup>) in 2005. This is a decline of about 253,000,000 acre feet (312 km<sup style="line-height: 1;">3</sup>), or 9%, since substantial groundwater irrigation development began in the 1950s.<sup id="cite_ref-mcguire07_1-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-mcguire07-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[1]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Water conservation practices (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrace(agriculture)" title="Terrace (agriculture)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">terracing</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crop_rotation" title="Crop rotation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">crop rotation</a>), more efficient irrigation methods (center pivot and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drip_irrigation" title="Drip irrigation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">drip</a>), and reduced area under irrigation have helped to slow depletion of the aquifer, but levels are generally still dropping in areas including southwestern Kansas and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Panhandle" title="Texas Panhandle" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Texas Panhandle</a>. In other areas, such as parts of eastern and central Nebraska and of the region south of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubbock,Texas" title="Lubbock, Texas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Lubbock, Texas</a>, water levels have risen since 1980.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center-pivot_irrigator" class="mw-redirect" title="Center-pivot irrigator" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">center-pivot irrigator</a> was described as the "villain"<sup id="cite_ref-NYT20May2013_20-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-NYT20May2013-20" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[20]</a></sup> in a <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times" class="mw-redirect" title="New York Times" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">New York Times</a></i> article, "Wells Dry, Fertile Plains Turn to Dust" recounting the relentless decline of parts of the Ogallala Aquifer. Sixty years of intensive farming using huge center-pivot irrigators has emptied parts of the High Plains Aquifer.<sup id="cite_ref-NYT20May2013_20-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-NYT20May2013-20" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[20]</a></sup> Hundreds to thousands of years of rainfall would be needed to replace the groundwater in the depleted aquifer. In 1950, irrigated cropland covered 250,000 acres (100,000 ha). With the use of center-pivot irrigation, nearly three million acres of land were irrigated.<sup id="cite_ref-NYT20May2013_20-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-NYT20May2013-20" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[20]</a></sup> In some places in the Texas Panhandle, the water table has been drained (dewatered). "Vast stretches of Texas farmland lying over the aquifer no longer support irrigation. In west-central Kansas, up to a fifth of the irrigated farmland along a 100-mile swath (160 km) of the aquifer has already gone dry."<sup id="cite_ref-NYT20May2013_20-3" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-NYT20May2013-20" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[20]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The center-pivot irrigation system is considered to be a highly efficient system which helps conserve water. However, by 2013, as the water consumption efficiency of the center-pivot irrigator improved over the years, farmers chose to plant more intensively, irrigate more land, and grow thirstier crops rather than reduce water consumption.<sup id="cite_ref-NYT20May2013_20-4" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-NYT20May2013-20" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[20]</a></sup> One approach to reducing the amount of groundwater used is to employ treated recycled water for irrigation; another approach is to change to crops that require less water, such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower" class="mw-redirect" title="Sunflower" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">sunflowers</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-21" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-21" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[21]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Several rivers, such as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platte_River" title="Platte River" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Platte</a>, run below the water level of the aquifer. Because of this, the rivers receive groundwater flow (baseflow), carrying it out of the region rather than recharging the aquifer.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The $46.1-million <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optima_Lake" title="Optima Lake" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Optima Lake</a> dam in western <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma" title="Oklahoma" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Oklahoma</a> was rendered useless when the dropping level of the aquifer drastically reduced flow of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_River(Oklahoma)" title="Beaver River (Oklahoma)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Beaver River</a>, the lake's intended source of water.<sup id="cite_ref-22" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-22" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[22]</a></sup></font></p><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Accelerated_decline_in_aquifer_storage">Accelerated decline in aquifer storage</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ogallala_Aquifer&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: Accelerated decline in aquifer storage" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h3><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The depletion between 2001 and 2008, inclusive, is about 32% of the cumulative depletion during the entire 20th century.<sup id="cite_ref-KonikowUSGCjan2013_23-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-KonikowUSGCjan2013-23" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[23]</a></sup> In the United States, the biggest users of water from aquifers include agricultural irrigation and oil and coal extraction.<sup id="cite_ref-depletion_24-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-depletion-24" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[24]</a></sup>"Cumulative total groundwater depletion in the United States accelerated in the late 1940s and continued at an almost steady linear rate through the end of the century. In addition to widely recognized environmental consequences, groundwater depletion also adversely impacts the long-term sustainability of groundwater supplies to help meet the nation’s water needs."<sup id="cite_ref-KonikowUSGCjan2013_23-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-KonikowUSGCjan2013-23" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[23]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since the 1940s, pumping from the Ogallala has drawn the aquifer down more than 300 feet (90 m) in some areas. Producers have taken steps to reduce their reliance on irrigated water. Streamlined operations allow them to produce significantly greater yield using roughly the same amount of water needed four decades ago. Still, losses to the aquifer between 2001 and 2011 equated to a third of its cumulative depletion during the entire 20th century. The Ogallala is recharged primarily by rainwater, but only about one inch of precipitation actually reaches the aquifer annually. Rainfall in most of the Texas High Plains is minimal, evaporation is high, and infiltration rates are slow.<sup id="cite_ref-window.state.tx.us_25-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-window.state.tx.us-25" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[25]</a></sup></font></p><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span class="mw-headline" id="Environmental_controversies" style="">Environmental controversies</span></font></h2><h3 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom: 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Proposed_Keystone_XL_Pipeline">Proposed Keystone XL Pipeline</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ogallala_Aquifer&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: Proposed Keystone XL Pipeline" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h3><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-style: italic; padding-left: 1.6em; margin-bottom: 0.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See also: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_risks_of_the_Keystone_XL_pipeline" class="mw-redirect" title="Environmental risks of the Keystone XL pipeline" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Environmental risks of the Keystone XL pipeline</a></font></div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2008, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TransCanada_Corporation" title="TransCanada Corporation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">TransCanada Corporation</a> proposed the construction of the 1,661-mile (2,673 km) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_Pipeline" title="Keystone Pipeline" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Keystone XL</a> pipeline to carry oil from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athabasca_oil_sands" title="Athabasca oil sands" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Athabasca oil sands</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta" title="Alberta" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Alberta</a> to refineries near <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston,Texas" class="mw-redirect" title="Houston, Texas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Houston, Texas</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-26" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-26" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[26]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-27" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-27" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[27]</a></sup> The proposed route of the pipeline crosses the eastern part of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandhills(Nebraska)" title="Sandhills (Nebraska)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Nebraska Sandhills</a>; opponents of the route cite the risk to the Ogallala Aquifer posed by the possibility of contamination from spilled <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diluted_bitumen" class="mw-redirect" title="Diluted bitumen" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">dilute bitumen</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-routebest_28-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-routebest-28" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[28]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-29" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-29" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[29]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Research hydrogeologist James Goeke, professor emeritus at the University of Nebraska, who has spent more than 40 years studying the Ogallala Aquifer, phoned TransCanada officials and quizzed them on the project, and satisfied himself that danger to the aquifer was small, because he believes that a spill would be unlikely to penetrate down into the aquifer, and if it did, he believes that the contamination would be localized. He noted: "A lot of people in the debate about the pipeline talk about how leakage would foul the water and ruin the entire water supply in the state of Nebraska and that’s just a false", <sup id="cite_ref-30" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-30" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[30]</a></sup> Goeke said "... a leak from the XL pipeline would pose a minimal risk to the aquifer as a whole."<sup id="cite_ref-31" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-31" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[31]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pipeline industry spokesmen have noted that thousands of miles of existing pipelines carrying crude oil and refined liquid hydrocarbons have crossed over the Ogallala Aquifer for years, in southeast Wyoming, eastern Colorado and New Mexico, western Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.<sup id="cite_ref-32" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-32" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[32]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-33" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-33" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[33]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-34" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-34" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[34]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-35" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-35" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[35]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-36" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-36" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[36]</a></sup> The Pioneer crude oil pipeline crosses east-west across Nebraska, and the Pony Express pipeline, which crosses the Ogallala Aquifer in Colorado, Nebraska, and Kansas, was being converted as of 2013 from natural gas to crude oil, under a permit from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Energy_Regulatory_Commission" title="Federal Energy Regulatory Commission" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Federal Energy Regulatory Commission</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-37" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-37" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[37]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the lead agency in the transboundary pipeline project, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_State" title="United States Department of State" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">U.S. State Department</a> commissioned an environmental-impact assessment as required by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Environmental_Policy_Act_of_1969" class="mw-redirect" title="National Environmental Policy Act of 1969" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">National Environmental Policy Act of 1969</a>. The <i>Environmental Impact Statement</i> concluded that the project posed little threat of "adverse environmental impacts",<sup id="cite_ref-routebest_28-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-routebest-28" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[28]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-38" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-38" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[38]</a></sup> the report was drafted by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardno_Entrix" class="mw-redirect" title="Cardno Entrix" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Cardno Entrix</a>, a company that assisted both the Department of State and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in preparing environmental impact statements for other proposed TransCanda projects. Although it is "common for companies applying to build government projects to be involved in assigning and paying for the impact analysis",<sup id="cite_ref-39" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-39" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[39]</a></sup> several opponents of the project suggested there could be a conflict of interest. In response to that concern, the Department of State's Office of the Inspector General conducted an investigation of the potential conflict of interest. The February 2012 report of that investigation states no conflict of interest existed either in the selection of the contractor or in the preparation of the environmental impact statement.<sup id="cite_ref-40" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-40" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[40]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">U.S. President Barack Obama "initially rejected the Keystone XL pipeline in January 2012, saying he wanted more time for an environmental review."<sup id="cite_ref-NBC_41-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-NBC-41" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[41]</a></sup> On February 17, 2013, a rally at the National Mall drew an estimated 40,000 in protest of Keystone XL.<sup id="cite_ref-NBC_41-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-NBC-41" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[41]</a></sup> In January 2014, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.State_Department" class="mw-redirect" title="U.S. State Department" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">U.S. State Department</a> released its Keystone pipeline <i>Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for the Keystone XL Project Executive Summary</i>, which concluded that, according to models, a large crude oil spill from the pipeline that reached the Ogallala could spread as far as 1,214 feet (370 m), with dissolved components spreading as much as 1,050 ft (320 m) further.<sup id="cite_ref-42" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-42" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[42]</a></sup></font></p><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="Conservation">Conservation</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ogallala_Aquifer&action=edit&section=9" title="Edit section: Conservation" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h2><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since 2010, the North Plains Groundwater Conservation District, which encompasses eight counties north of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarillo,Texas" title="Amarillo, Texas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Amarillo</a>, including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore_County,Texas" title="Moore County, Texas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Moore</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dallam_County,Texas" title="Dallam County, Texas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Dallam</a> Counties, has offered a $300,000 annual demonstration project to conserve water that farmers pump from the Ogallala Aquifer. Participating farmers grow corn with just over half of the water that they would normally require to irrigate the fields, or they plant several weeks later than customary. Pivot sprinklers are used in the project, rather than the more expensive drip irrigation. According to district manager Steve Walthour, conservation is essential considering declining levels of the aquifer.<sup id="cite_ref-cons_43-0" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-cons-43" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[43]</a></sup> The local non-profit organization Ogallala Commons, named for the aquifer itself, which not only collaborates and supports the local communicates, also works to conserve the Ogallala Aquifer and the surrounding area.<sup id="cite_ref-44" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-44" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[44]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-45" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-45" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[45]</a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-46" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-46" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[46]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Eleven farmers in 2013 participated in the conservation program, with some planting in dry earth, rather than watered soil. They are leaving more space between plants, a technique that retains moisture for a longer period of time. Soil sensors permit farmers to gather accurate information about the moisture level of their crops. The motivation to save water comes from the district's regulations on extracting water from the aquifer. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Geological_Survey" title="United States Geological Survey" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">United States Geological Survey</a> determined the water level in the aquifer has dropped more in Texas than in any other state in the basin.<sup id="cite_ref-cons_43-1" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-cons-43" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[43]</a></sup></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Farmers on their own land may draw water without charge from the aquifer. Pumping costs are low because the fuel used, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas" title="Natural gas" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">natural gas</a>, is inexpensive. The North Plains district first established limits on pumping in 2005 and tightened the regulations four years later. Certain wells are now required to have meters. Yet another challenge facing the district is that higher prices for crops<sup class="noprint Inline-Template" style="line-height: 1; white-space: nowrap;">[<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Dates_and_numbers#Chronological_items" title="Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><span title="The time period mentioned near this tag is ambiguous. (April 2016)">when?</span></a></i>]</sup> have prompted some to plant additional fields and further increase the use of water from the aquifer.<sup id="cite_ref-cons_43-2" class="reference" style="line-height: 1; unicode-bidi: isolate; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer#cite_note-cons-43" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[43]</a></sup></font></p><h2 style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(162, 169, 177); line-height: 1.3;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="mw-headline" id="See_also">See also</span><span class="mw-editsection" style="user-select: none; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-right: 0.25em;">[</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ogallala_Aquifer&action=edit&section=10" title="Edit section: See also" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">edit</a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="margin-left: 0.25em;">]</span></span></font></h2><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><table class="multicol" role="presentation" style=""><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align: top;"><ul style="margin: 0.3em 0px 0px 1.6em; padding: 0px; list-style-image: url(" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" csvg="Csvg" width="%225%22" height="%2213%22%3E" ccircle="Ccircle" cx="%222.5%22" cy="%229.5%22" r="%222.5%22" fill="%22%2300528c%22/%3E" c="C" e="E" xmlns="%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22" xmlns:data="data"><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquifer" title="Aquifer" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Aquifer</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_water" title="Fossil water" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Fossil water</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Recycling_and_Northern_Development_Canal" title="Great Recycling and Northern Development Canal" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Great Recycling and Northern Development Canal</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundwater" title="Groundwater" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Groundwater</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogeology" title="Hydrogeology" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Hydrogeology</font></a></li></ul></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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