Impact of Irrigation

• Boomed after WWII

• Significant increases in crop yields

• Ogallala “myth”

• Drastic amounts of pumping caused water level declines

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Then came the development of irrigation. While developed in the early 1900s, irrigation didn’t really become popular until after WWII. Farmers then realized that they could increase crop yields by 600 to 800 percent while paying minimal cost for pumps and fuel. Thus, wells began to spring up throughout the region and pump water from the Ogallala. It was believed at that time that the Ogallala was an inexhaustible resource fed from an underground river from the Rockies, so farmers would pump as much water as they thought necessary. If a little was good, more was bound to be better. The aquifer is actually recharged through infiltration of water from the surface, primarily through precipitation. This recharge rate is low and pumping rates greatly exceed the recharge, causing water level declines in the aquifer. Some area of Texas where the saturated thickness is not as dense have experienced declines of over 100 ft. It has been estimated that over 25% of the aquifer reserves will be gone by 2020.