Ogallala Aquifer drops by more than a foot in parts of western Kansas
Sprinklers irrigate a field in Hamilton County, Kansas. Decades of irrigation has slowly drained the Ogallala Aquifer. (Allison Kite/Kansas Reflector)
Aquifer levels in parts of western Kansas that rely on groundwater for everything from drinking to irrigation fell more than a foot last year, Kansas Geological Survey scientists said Tuesday.
The Kansas Geological Survey earlier this month completed its annual campaign to measure the Ogallala Aquifer, which supplies the western one-third of the state with water. The Ogallala, the largest underground store of freshwater in the nation, has been declining for decades because of overuse to irrigate crops in otherwise arid parts of the state.
According to preliminary data presented to the Kansas House Water Committee, aquifer levels in the groundwater management area covering southwest Kansas fell by 1.52 feet between January 2024 and this month, a larger drop than the 1.43-foot decline the year before.
Western Kansas' management area saw a half-foot decline, on par with the year before.
Northwest Kansas, which has been struggling with dry conditions, saw the aquifer decline 1.34 feet, a far more significant drop than the 0.47-foot drop between January 2023 and 2024.
The figures are preliminary. The Kansas Geological Survey's official report will be out in a few weeks, said Jay Kalbas, director of the survey.
Each year in January, the geological survey — with the help of local partners — measures hundreds of wells across western Kansas to assess the decline of the Ogallala Aquifer. The effort takes them to remote parts of the state where they stomp through corn fields to get to isolated wells and measure them using steel highway tape.
This year, the surface of the water in one well was 485 feet.
'This is technically rigorous, difficult work,' Kalbas said. 'It's also physically rigorous and difficult work.'
The Ogallala Aquifer has been in decline since the mid-20th Century. After World War II, a boom in groundwater irrigation transformed arid western Kansas into an agricultural powerhouse. But the aquifer refills far more slowly than farmers are draining it, leading to a gradual decline.
Parts of western Kansas where the aquifer is especially deep still have decades of water left, while others are near dry already.
State lawmakers have begun putting pressure on local groundwater managers to make a plan to slow the decline.
But farmers don't have to stop pumping groundwater to irrigate crops altogether, Kalbas said. The survey has developed estimates for how much producers need to reduce pumping to stabilize the aquifer.
Kalbas presented a graph showing farmers and other water users on one part of the aquifer needed to reduce pumping by 17.5% to stabilize the supply. Other parts of the aquifer might not need to cut back as much — or might need to reduce pumping even more.
'We don't have to stop irrigating,' Kalbas said. 'We don't have to stop using our water. That resource is there for us to use. What we have to do, though, is define the specific amount of reduction that it takes…to achieve stability.'
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