WaterClaim Response to Letheby

A Grand Island Independent employee has written an editorial calling the use of irrigation in western Nebraska one of the greatest agricultural travesties in history.  He makes a number of generalizations that are so broad that they are highly misleading. 

There is not enough space here to refute each of the distortions, so I encourage you to take a look at the detailed response that is available on our web site, www.waterclaim.org  There is also a lively discussion on the Nebraska Game and Parks forum that can be found at http://tinyurl.com/dleb9

One of the biggest distortions is the idea that the aquifer will run out of water within 50 years.

Here are some facts the public might find interesting.  According to the USGS, there was more water in the Nebraska portion of the Ogallala Aquifer in 2000 than there was in 1918. The areas with an increasing water table have added more water to the aquifer than the areas with a lowering water table have removed. It is hard to drain the aquifer when it is actually increasing in volume in so much of the state. While there are a few areas in Nebraska at risk of not being able to operate large irrigation wells within the next fifty years, most of the state can irrigate for hundreds of years (if not more), if current trends hold.

According to the USGS, large capacity wells can only remove a small percentage of the water stored in the aquifer. The water will not flow into the well hole fast enough to sustain the well. A small well will be able to remove a much greater percentage of the water, but at a much slower rate. An 800-gallon well might only be able to remove 15% of water stored in the aquifer, while a 50-gallon well might be able to remove 40% but over a much longer period of time. The percentages vary dramatically, depending on geology.

For Chase County , one of Nebraska ’s counties with the greatest draw down in the aquifer, there is still an average of over 210 feet of saturated thickness. Draw down here is about 6 to 12 inches a year in the western half of the county (24 inches during the drought) and is actually going up in the eastern part of the county, even during the drought.

To make the generalizations like Letheby has is a disservice to the reader.  This response addresses just one of the more harmful generalizations.  Please research before you accept his alarmist statements. After reading his editorial, it would be easy to conclude that the aquifer will be dry soon, that irrigators are criminals, and that politicians are bumbling idiots for permitting these crimes. 

Believe it or not, Nebraska is a water-rich state.  About 2 million acre feet of water flows into the state each year, and about 8 million flows out.  Nebraska contributes about 6 million acre feet of water each year to the Gulf of Mexico , where it turns to salt water.  About 84 million acre feet of water falls onto the state in an average year via precipitation.  About 85% of this evaporates and blows away.  The Ogallala aquifer stores about 2.2 billion acre feet of water.  Chase County removes from the aquifer about 0.0001 billion acre feet of water each year.  In other words, Chase County removes about 200,000 acre feet, or less than 1/100^th of a percent, of the aquifer. 

Nebraska does not have a water shortage.  It has a distribution problem and a political decision to make.  Does Nebraska prefer to: 1.) Continue using water the way it is now with some areas gaining water and others losing water; 2.) Shut down irrigation and greatly impact a large segment of its economy; or, 3.) Begin managing water, like every other location in the world, by moving water from areas of surplus to areas of shortage?

WaterClaim is proposing ideas for fair discussion.  WaterClaim does not believe shutting off all wells and returning large segments of western Nebraska to grass is good for the State, nor do we think irrigators should pump the aquifer dry.   We believe water should be managed carefully and that we, as a people, should continue to sustain the aquifer and the communities relying on it.  Join us in finding solutions that make Nebraska strong.