Starting to Pinch

The wife and I spent a considerable amount of time yesterday in the local NRD offices going over the water table histories in this part of the state (Western NE).

We are toying with the idea of buying another tract of land and wanted to know what the ground water figures showed for the past few years in the differing areas.

Things just are not good here.

Due to the extreme dry conditions in our part of the country, ground water has been dropping at an alarming rate (5' in the past 10 years), which heretofore has been unheard of.

According to the officials, we are only about one season away from the water from all irrigation wells being "rationed" out. 100 miles southwest of us, this is already being done & and the drilling of any new wells is banned.

I used to have mixed feelings about the state boys having their fingers on the 'water throttle', but after seeing the maps showing all of the irrigation wells, I've changed my tune.

There are so many 1,000 & 1500 gpm pipes stuck in the ground out here that this region looks like an oversized pincushion. So, controlling the pumping now seems to me to be a good thing.

But yet, 300 miles to the east of us, the farmers cannot get the water to run off fast enough because they are totally saturated down there.

Water tables keep dropping and the land prices keep rising. Must be a population thing.

So, it looks as though we are going to be learning how to scratch the dirt in a dry land fashion. Please send rain,

Allan

Yes, this was our thinking also.

Plus the fact that we aren't doing this as an 'economic endeavor' as such.

We just want to get out there and scratch around in the dirt and live amongst the critters once again.

We really miss the lifestyle. We miss your world.

Allan

Adequate water is essential for home or farm. Unless you want to be farming like they do in Ethiopia, you might want to think about moving to a place where land is cheap and water is abundant.

Well, yes and no. Water works a little differently than oil or coal deposits do & it depends upon the particular region in question.

We, in this part of the country, pump from anywhere from 180 to 600'. At these depths, monitoring stations measure ground water temps.

In this region, these temps show that the recharge will always hit that aquifer within 48 hours. This is a documented fact & this is how the water tables are now being governed by the different states involved.

But, like you say though and I agree, the problem lies in the amount coming out vs the amount being recharged. Too many holes in the ground!

That Ogallala Aquifer, which used to be a huge four-state underground ocean is shrinking and it is shrinking fast.

Allan

Sounds like a plan!

They were telling yesterday that a lot of the guys down there around Kearney and on east are just spinning the pivots around just once so that they can apply their chemicals. What a difference just a few hundred miles makes!

The ones that are really going to be hurting are the fellas that are pumpin water on alfalfa. Sounds like they will be squeezed down to just 14" a year. Ouch! That just ain't a gonna work.

And so it goes,

Allan