The past four columns have provided a brief overview of the water dilemma Western Kansas faces with the Ogallala aquifer. Let’s put that dilemma in simple terms.
• The advent of center pivot irrigation created an agricultural revolution. However, remember at most about 20% of acreage is irrigated. This allowed for large scale, high yielding corn production.
• Millions of bushels of corn allowed for the development of a large scale feedlot and meatpacking industry. This allowed cities such as Dodge and Garden City to thrive.
• Even with the corn we produce, it isn’t typically enough to supply feedlots.
• Agriculture is the single largest consumptive user of groundwater. Other uses are minor in comparison. This usage includes more than simply watering crops. Cities, think Wichita and Hays are laying claim to their fair share of groundwater for human and industrial use.
• The overall dilemma is what to do to manage this challenge while maintaining the agricultural industry and population.
So what can be done? This has been a topic of much discussion, especially during the worst of the drought. Without taking sides, what is possible if not practical? This doesn’t include what is already underway legislatively such as the five-year total usage.
• Certain areas such as Stafford County, could likely be managed to allow sustainable irrigation due to various geologic factors. That however, doesn’t mean business as usual.
• Some areas have already reached the point where depletion has resulted in the end of center pivot irrigation. This has resulted in the return of dryland acreage.
• Where overhead irrigation is still practical but groundwater levels are in steep decline, use the most efficient irrigation systems possible. Have the government cost share switching over to subsurface drip irrigation and/or to have irrigated land retired.
• Increased research and development by the public and private sector on improving the water usage of current crops and examining potential new crops. Especially those crops as they could relate to the feedlot industry.
• Increase research on alternatives to corn for feedlot operations.
• Retire farmland in the most critical areas back to native grasses and grasses adapted to the region. Use this land for grazing and increase the percentage of beef produced using forage.
• Continue to increase the efficiency of beef production and the water use efficiency of all phases of agricultural production.
• For residential areas, provide incentives for homeowners to increase water use efficiency in all phases of domestic water use. For example, more water efficient toilets and showers. Mandate and help homeowners move away from high water use lawns.
• This has been saved for last. Build a pipeline from the eastern U.S., likely from Lake Michigan to Kansas and then a distribution system to Western Kansas. The cost is estimated in the billions of dollars. It will cost producers money, a lot of money to use this water. Eastern states and Canada have grave concerns and legal claims to this water.
The real question is “Can the western half of the state cope with this dilemma?” The answer is of course yes. The challenge is how and what impacts it will have.