Trends in Ogallala Notes

• Ogallala covers parts of eight states, from South Dakota to Texas and covers 174,000 square miles.


• The Texas panhandle relies on the 36,080 square miles found in the High Plains. According to estimates, 417 million ac-ft of storage is in Texas (Jensen, 2004). This is like saying Lake Erie of the Great Lakes is buried underneath the Texas Panhandle (EPA, 2006)


• North Plains Water District in Texas, the aquifer levels are decreasing at a rate of 1.74 feet per year or 1,082,631 acre ft (NPWD)


• crops irrigated by the aquifer represent 65 percent of all the irrigated acreage in the nation (Jensen, 2004)


• aquifer may dry up in as little as 25 years (BBC, 2007)


• ArcHydro Groundwater (AHGW) was used to evaluate the water levels in 1990 and 2005


• Declines of 1.3, 2.8 feet per year in 2 Lubbock locations, Abernathy showing MUCH slower decline, crop land showing the weakness while the population's needs are safer,


• Texas Water Development Board shows that the average well depth is 278 feet; wells ranged in depth from 40 feet to 700 feet


• importance of two variables: location and depth of wells


• groundwater levels in the Texas Panhandle are dropping. However, not all areas covered by the aquifer will encounter the same issues at the same time. Decline is not uniform across the entire High Plains. The effects of groundwater change are not shared equally. The future of irrigation in the region depends on the two variables of well location and the depth of the well. By understanding these variables farmers can properly plan for the future