🔄FROM THE ARCHIVE: The Ogallala Aquifer supports one fifth of America's agriculture. But its existence relies on a vital source: playas, a type of wetland that remains threatened.
An aerial view shows the vast landscape of the Texas Panhandle. Like other areas in the Great Plains, its agriculture relies on water from the Ogallala Aquifer, which is sustained by playas. Place yourself in the heart of the Great Plains, say, somewhere in the Texas Panhandle. A long, lonely stretch of interstate extends before you. Prairie grass and planted wheat cover the landscape out to the horizon, flat as a table in all directions.
New pumping methods and the dawn of center-pivot irrigation systems enabled removal of significant quantities of Ogallala water in the 1950s. Since then, farmers have managed to suck up over half a Lake Erie’s worth — some estimates are closer to a whole Lake Erie’s worth — of water from the aquifer.
Perhaps the most common — and most insidious — way that playas have been degraded is through sedimentation. Also called siltation, this process happens when sediments run off the land, typically from tilled agricultural areas, and settle in the cracks of the playa. Though the speed of remediation may be slow, the work is important, especially since there is the potential to develop a sustainable aquifer that can support irrigation for the long haul. According to Mike Carter, Joint Venture Coordinator of PLJV, many irrigators would only need to cut back by 30 or 40 percent in order to become sustainable, at least in western Kansas.
In any event, some kind of change is needed. Researchers at Texas Tech University predict that for a 13-county area between Lubbock and Amarillo, the reduction in the aquifer level and other factors will reduce the amount of land that can be irrigated by 60 percent between 2010 and 2059, from just over 2.3 million acres to around 925,000.
And playas sustain far more than just amphibians. The playas of the Central Flyway, the great migratory path taken from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico by millions of birds, provide a stopping point for these birds, a pit stop for them to rest and feed.Hope in a Changing Climate?
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