If you’ve ever traveled through the ‘Farm Belt’ of mid America, you’ve seen the seemingly endless fields of corn, with the yuuuge ‘center pivot’ sprinkler systems spewing endless water, to keep the fields green. What a WASTE of precious water!

 Save the aquifers of eastern Colorado and western Kansas 

By Lucas Bessire

Guest Commentary

It is no secret that the Great Plains is facing a groundwater crisis. This is particularly obvious in eastern Colorado and western Kansas, where much of the Ogallala aquifer is in steep and well-documented decline, as the precious resource is used to grow corn, for ethanol, which we don’t need.

In the simplest terms, ethanol takes more energy to produce than it yields, but, it provides the farmers with an income, through government subsidies.

Given current prices and costs, many scrape by, break-even or lose money to pump irreplaceable groundwater. Often, revenues do not cover the costs of production for farmers. An array of government subsidies or federal crop insurance covers these losses. Bank loans turn them into debts. The debts compel further irrigation. The cycle repeats, as the aquifers are rapidly depleted.

Our High Plains aquifer is precious. It is worth more than any single crop or lifetime of them. The value of groundwater will only grow over time, as we search for ways to inhabit a hotter, drier world. If we start to treat the aquifer with the care it deserves, we may still be able to save some of these ancient waters and share them with future generations. Let’s not wait to value our aquifer until it is gone.