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The Ogallala Aquifer sits below many states in the Midwest.
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Narrator: Agriculture, in western Kansas in many cases, has grown to depend on irrigation for crop success. Decisions on how the water is used could potentially have ramifications beyond our state The Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies the water, sits below several states in the Midwest including Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. In recent years questions have been raised as to how much water exists and if the usage of the water for irrigation purposes will impair community supplies in the future.
Narrator: In the 2001 State of the State address, Governor Bill Graves stated that a goal of "zero depletion" is something that Kansans should strive for.
Gov. Bill Graves: To achieve long-term viability of Kansas communities, industries and agricultural producers, I support the recommendation made by my task force on water, by 2020 we stop depletion of our states' precious aquifers.
Narrator: There was little reaction in the house chamber after the comment.
Narrator: A member of that task force, William Mai lives near Sharon Springs in a part of the state that has relied heavily on crop irrigation. Yet he was one of the voices who recommended the zero depletion goal.
William Mai, Farmer, Sharon Springs: We started irrigating in 1948. That was when my dad put down the first well. And, it was probably the most important factor in keeping me on the farm, when I went to college in the 50s and decided to come back.
Narrator: Over the past several years Mai has chosen to shut off his wells, as he was having a more difficult time bringing water to the surface.
William Mai: We had a choice. We could have done things like put in sprinklers and we could have lengthened our irrigation season or a lot of things you can do to make use of more water, but when you do that you're not following what the signals are telling you to do.
William Mai: The last year of pumping on the original well that was drilled in 1948, it actually was still our best well and it was starting the season at about 500 gallons a minute and end up at about 350, by the end of the pumping season. And we, we had shortened our pumping down to about 2 months.
Narrator: Even without irrigation, his farm continues to be productive.
William Mai: There's a lot of work involved in irrigation. And a tremendous amount of expense and we can… we reduced our expenses tremendously from the time that we irrigated.
Narrator: William Mai's views are certainly not universal in Western Kansas. Many farmers count on having the irrigation and have centered their operations on the confidence it provides.
Narrator: Jon Friesen, who farms on ground near Mingo, Kansas, has carried on family traditions of farming with irrigation.
Jon Friesen, Thomas County Farmer: Massive irrigation, or widespread irrigation as we know it today didn't occur till actually in the early 70s when I went to college. Cause we could come home on weekends and there would be more wells drilled and more sprinklers put up than the couple of weekends before, you know. So, what we see today, essentially as been in place since about 1976. Cause any production, any additional irrigation from that time on is been pretty small amounts.
Narrator: Friesen says that the economy drove farmers like his father to irrigation.
Jon Friesen: Moving over to irrigation he was able to stay and keep trying, keep going, you know. And we as kids, we worked with dad, right beside him. So you know, we knew what he was going through and what he was doing.
Narrator: And having the state suggest changes in water usage doesn't sit well many farmers who have based their operation on the constant flow of the pumps.
Jon Friesen: This thing has got a social and an economic impact to our communities out here and I believe that when, when we start talking about this stuff comin' out of Topeka, it scares me that, are we really in tune with the people that are out here? As our time comes that we start reducing irrigation, are we going to be able to support the population that's here. I doubt it. Come back in 20 years and ask me if we did or didn't.
Narrator: Robert Rook is an associate professor of history at Fort Hays State University. He has studied water issues in different parts of the world and reflects on some of the issues here in Kansas.
Robert Rook: Whenever you start talking about depletion you immediately begin talking about management. And when you start talking about management, you start talking about imposing restrictions and changing the way that we have done things traditionally. And while this makes a good deal of sense on a macro level, lets say on the state level or national level, it invariably threatens and makes uneasy local constituencies who are most directly affected by that particular resource.
Narrator: Kenneth Frahm farms in an 11-member family partnership near Colby and use irrigation as well as dry land techniques in their operation.
Kenneth Frahm: It clearly is a mining operation of the water. We will readily admit that. There's not enough water there to last forever at the current rate of extraction. But what makes me feel a little more optimistic about it than that might sound is that as you have that decline in aquifer and in the period of time we've been irrigating which is 25 years give or take just a little bit, we have declined from a hundred feet of water to something in the vicinity of 80 feet of water. Now it varies field by field, but that would suggest maybe a foot a year decline. That's been real uneven and I think its been slowing down.
Narrator: Conversely, Robert Rook sees a bigger picture in respects to declines over the last quarter century.
Robert Rook: Well, 24 years in the history of the Ogallala in many respects is nothing. This is in many respects a timeless resource in the sense that its existence goes beyond the bounds of most of the measurements we use to measure human communities. And, so, on that scale 24 years, or even 50 years is really the blink of an eye.
Kenneth Frahm: We've been blessed with that available water supply. Several other things about our geography here are a blessing. And one of those is that available water. And that water ought to be used for its ultimate and best use and they're might be those that suggest that that's human consumption, but so far they're aren't a lot of humans in this part of the state.
Jon Friesen: I think our biggest question out here is save it for who and what. What's the plan here, you know?
Robert Rook: If you're saving the water for that one particular farmer or that one particular farm family or immediate farm community, well the Ogallala is a lot bigger than that. But, in one respect, it's not just the local context. It's that water that you're saving within the overall context of the Ogallala in an overall regional economic and environmental context.
Narrator: After the governor's address there was reaction in terms of discussion of different management plans that could be imposed, but with no action taken at this time. Kansans, for now, are waiting and watching to see what local entities, state government, federal agencies come up with to affect usage of the water below our state. Not to mention keeping an ear to the ground, and listening to aquifer itself.
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This transcript is from KTWU's Sunflower Journeys 2002 season.
Sunflower Journeys Home
A production of:
KTWU Channel 11
Washburn University
Topeka, Ks. 66621
785-231-1111
journeys@washburn.edu
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