Chapter: Civil : Water Resources and Irrigation Engineering : Irrigation Water Requirements

High Plains Aquifer

The High Plains is a 174,000-square-mile area of flat to gently rolling terrain that includes parts of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming.

High Plains Aquifer

 

ü        The High Plains is a 174,000-square-mile area of flat to gently rolling terrain that includes parts of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming.

 

ü        The area is characterized by moderate precipitation but generally has a low natural recharge rate to the ground-water system.

 

ü        Unconsolidated alluvial deposits that form a water-table aquifer called the High Plains aquifer (consisting largely of the Ogallala aquifer) underlie the region.

 

ü        Irrigation water pumped from the aquifer has made the High Plains one of the Nation's most important agricultural areas.

ü        During the late 1800's, settlers and speculators moved to the plains, and farming became the major activity in the area.

 

ü        The drought of the 1930's gave rise to the use of irrigation and improved farming practices in the High Plains (Gutentag and others, 1984).

 

ü        Around 1940, a rapid expansion in the use of ground water for irrigation began. In 1949, about 480 million cubic feet per day of ground water was used for irrigation.

 

ü        By 1980, the use had more than quadrupled to about 2,150 million cubic feet per day (U.S. Geological Survey, 1984).

 

ü        Subsequently, it declined to about 1,870 million cubic feet per day in 1990 (McGuire and Sharpe, 1997).

 

ü        Not all of the water pumped for irrigation is consumed as evapotranspiration by crops; some seeps back into the ground and recharges the aquifer.

 

ü        Nevertheless, this intense use of ground water has caused major water-level declines and decreased the saturated thickness of the aquifer significantly in some areas

 

ü        These changes are particularly evident in the central and southern parts of the High Plains.

 

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Civil : Water Resources and Irrigation Engineering : Irrigation Water Requirements : High Plains Aquifer |


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