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Show Western Resources WRAP-UP Ogallala aquifer study by Helene C. Monberg, Vernal Express Washington Correspondent Washington Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldridge on Jan. 6 accepted a ;ix-year study on the Ogallala Aquifer, he nation's best known underground vater supply, from Gov. Bill Clements, -Tex., chairman of the High Plains Study Council (HPSC). The Council has some recommenda-ions recommenda-ions for the Secretary on how to stretch Hit the available water supply of the Jgallala Aquifer, which the Administra-;ion Administra-;ion may or may not accept. "Most of the ecommendations of the Council will ocus on what individual states and in-iividual in-iividual farmers can do" to slow the werdraft of water from the Ogallala, ac-:ording ac-:ording to Harold H (Hal) Brayman, the vater specialist on the staff of the Senate Environment and Public Works Commit-:ee. Commit-:ee. "There is not much recommended in the way of federal action," Brayman, who has followed the study and seen some of the drafts of the final report, told Western Resources Wrap-up ( WRW) on Jan. 5. Even if the council, which is expected to go out of business on March 31 when federal funding for it ceases, had urged a strong federal activist role and new legislation to "save the Ogallala," Brayman and other sources on the Senate and House Public Works Committees Commit-tees indicated other problems stand -much higher on their agenda. Amending the Clean Water Act and updating up-dating and revising the "404" permit program pro-gram regarding discharge of dredge and fill material at approved disposal sites are expected to get first consideration, staffers of both Committees told WRW on Jan. 5. They also do not expect Administration Ad-ministration recommendations if any on the Ogallala anytime soon. SURPRISING CONCLUSIONS The Ogallala Aquifer, largest and best known in the United States, stretches from South Dakota through most of West exas and includes most of the state of Nebraska, portions of eastern Wyoming, eastern Colorado and eastern New Mex-'ico Mex-'ico and portions of western Kansas and 'western Oklahoma in addition to West Texas. Wyoming and South Dakota chose not to be included in the study authorized in the 1976 Water Resources Development 'Act' (Public Law 94-587). The region ' studied comprised some 180 counties in .Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas an area of about 225,000 square miles wholly or partly overlying the Ogallala Aquifer, which is the principal source of water supply for irrigation and other uses for :he High Plains region. It is, according to the U.S. Army Corps Df Engineers, "one of the most heavily irrigated areas in the United States, comprising com-prising some 20 of the national total. Dver 40 of the fed beef for American consumers is fattened within this High Plains region on grain grown there. Even though some land in this High Plains Region has already reverted back to dry-land farming because of the lowered water table and high pumping costs "in West Texas, in 1981 about 16 million acres were under irrigation out of potential of 35-40 million irrigable acres, according to the Corps. t "Continued economic vitality of this region is now in question because water for irrigation and other purposes is being be-ing withdrawn from the Ogallala at a rate far in excess of natural recharge," Hhe Corps observed in its study on potential poten-tial water transfers completed in September 1982. When Congress authorized the $6 million study of the Ogallala in 1976 there ' was concern the area might not be able "to sustain itself. The multi-volume study Vindicated otherwise, according to a sum-imary sum-imary of the study done by Raymond J. 'Supalla, a professor, and Noel R. sGollehon, a researcher, both at the University of Nebraska, and Robert R. i Lansford, a professor at New Mexico State University. Their thorough analysis of the huge study appeared in 'the latest issue of the Journal of Soil and 'Water Conservation, the official publication publica-tion of the Soil Conservation Society of America. J These three experts concluded: There is no region-wide Ogallala problem, pro-blem, although there are more serious water supply problems in the Southern Plains, particularly in West Texas, than fin the Northern Plains. Nebraska emerges from the study as a surprisingly surprising-ly robust water-supply state. Education and research directed at improving agricultural productivity appear ap-pear "to hold considerable potential for dealing with diminishing water supplies. sup-plies. " High Plains farmers are learning ,fast to make more efficient use of the water they do have. v Mandatory pumping restrictions, when applied to the entire region, may (.significantly extend the life of the jjQuifer, but only at unacceptably high economic costs. "If such restrictions have merit, they must be applied only to Ihe local problem areas." . , Local areas concerned about the ex-jVaustion ex-jVaustion of their ground-water supply rirom the Ogallala may find it more advantageous ad-vantageous to reorient their economies to dry-land farming and to industries that use little or no water rather than trying try-ing to sustain their present economies by regulating water supplies. Large intrastate and interstate supply supp-ly augmentation programs are not likely like-ly to be economically feasible for "at least the next 40 years," the Supalla-Lansford-Gollehon analysis concluded. At a time when Agriculture Secretary John R. Block is attempting to get farmers to take wheat, corn, feed grains and cotton out of production through the Administration's new payment-in-kind (PIK) program, there is no point in attempting at-tempting to put more land into production produc-tion by water transfers, experts in the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), who provided technical assistance on the High Plains study, told WRW this week. WATER TRANSFERS EVALUATED Four interstate development alternatives alter-natives were evaluated by the Corps at the request of the High Plains Study Council, which was made up on the. governors of the six participating states. Two of the alternatives involved Missouri River water diverted from either South Dakota or Missouri, and the other two alternatives involved water from the Arkansas-Red-White System diverted in Arkansas and Texas. The Corps found the transfer routes were "engineeringly feasible," but it made no recommendation on any of the transfer routes. Although water sources are available "to restore and maintain irrigated ir-rigated lands" in the High Plains that might lose their water supply from the Ogallala by year 2020, "we have not determined that such water is surplus to the present and future needs of the source basins" ie., the Missouri, Arkansas-Red-White River systems, the Corps stated. It estimated unit costs to terminal storage facilities from transfer points from $227 per acre-foot to western Kansas Kan-sas to $569 per acre-foot to the Texas Panhandle, in water transfer construction construc-tion costs (in 1977 $) . Up to nine million acre-feet of water could be physically transported, but at high financial and potentially high environmental costs, the Corps study indicated. |