Western Kansas streams endangered because of low aquifer levels

Western Kansas has lost many of its major perennial streams because farmers have pumped extreme amounts of water from the Ogallala Aquifer, water experts were told Tuesday.

Jim Butler, geohydrology section chief with the Kansas Geological Survey, spoke at the Big 12 Universities Water Workshop at Kansas University about the dire situation with the Ogallala Aquifer.

Butler put up a slide with a newly released map showing that more than 60 percent of the aquifer, the state’s major water supply for irrigation, has been depleted. Some in the audience gasped as they saw big swaths of red on the map, signaling depletion.

“This pumping has obviously had an impact on the western third of Kansas,” Butler said. “It’s also caused collateral damage on our ecosystem health — especially our perennial streams.”

The aquifer lies beneath eight states including Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas, and is one of the largest groundwater resources in the world. But it’s in trouble because farmers have been over-pumping water to grow crops in semi-arid climates.

About 25 percent of the water used in the United States is from the aquifer, Butler said. About 95 percent of groundwater pumped in Kansas is used to irrigate crops.

Butler said many western Kansas streams used to be fed by the aquifer because its water table was higher than the streams. But the aquifer’s water table has dropped below the stream beds, three feet or more, and no longer can supply water to the streams, creating dry beds almost year around.

Using photographs of the Arkansas River, which used to be a major Kansas river near Larned, Butler was able to effectively demonstrate the problem.

One photo showed what the stream looks like today — dry and rocky.

“This is a very dispiriting sight,” Butler said. “It’s a tremendous loss to our ecosystem. The decreased well yields are not the only impacts.”

Butler said Kansas has three rivers classified as navigable, including the Arkansas River.

“Obviously to navigate this, you’ll use the ATV mode,” he said, pointing to the photo.

Since 1945, Kansas has been warning farmers that they were depleting the Ogallala, but the heavy irrigation continued despite several studies and task force reports. Gov. Sam Brownback has appointed another task force. The state hopes its recommendations will persuade farmers to reduce water use.

Butler said that simple solutions can work. For example, if farmers in northwest Kansas had pumped 22 percent less water over the past several years by using different techniques such as no-till to grow crops, water levels would have remained stable in the short term.

“If we cut back we can buy some time in the system in western Kansas to find solutions,” Butler said. “It’s all about buying time.”