KM-HQ: 11/26/2020
KM are among many who are growing concerned over the federal government's gross disregard for our lands, water, planet and people as from every possible angle hey seem to keep coming with detrimental attacks such as this.
The Ogallala-High Plains Aquifer is one of the world’s largest groundwater sources, extending from South Dakota down through the Texas Panhandle across portions of eight states. Its water supports US$35 billion in crop production each year. It underlies an estimated 174,000 square miles of the Central Plains and holds as much water as Lake Huron.
Between 1900 and 2008 the farmers drained some 89 trillion gallons from the aquifer – equivalent to two-thirds of Lake Erie. Irrigation accounts for 90% of Ogallala groundwater withdrawals. 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 Dust Bowl. Howling windstorms widely known as “black blizzards” blotted out the sun, blowing away exposed soil and displacing much of the human population.
Depletion is threatening drinking water supplies and undermining local communities already struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid crisis, hospital closures, soaring farm losses and rising suicide rates. As i sands now, officials project that Within 50 years, the entire aquifer is expected be 70% depleted.
University of California-Irvine hydrologist Jay Famiglietti has identified the Ogallala region and California’s Central Valley as the two most overheated and water-starved areas in the United States.
Farmers who are becoming aware of the situation many are shifting from water-intense crops like cotton to wheat. Still others, notably in west Texas, are converting back to non-irrigated dryland agriculture – a recognition of the stark limitations of irrigation dependency.
Please keep your eye and attention on this issue- Water is life for the whole of Great Creator's earthly creation and we cannot allow them to continue sucking it all away without better beneficial options soon being brought to the table and implemented into the peoples daily lives. Without water we have no food but without water we won't need any food because we will be dead from lacking water- it's a symbiotic relationship WE the people must strive endless and speedily to preserve!
Thanks for your interest, please stay tuned for future updates.