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Addressing the depletion of aquifers that support irrigated agriculture and provide drinking water for millions is a global challenge. Like many regional aquifers, the High Plains aquifer in western Kansas is under stress produced by decades of intensive pumping for irrigation. The resulting large water-level declines observed across the region pose an existential threat to the viability of irrigated agriculture and the rural communities that depend on it. This WRRC Water Webinar will discuss how groundwater users in western Kansas are addressing this threat through pumping reductions and modifications of agricultural practices. Dr. Butler will describe the water balance approach that enables the assessment of the impact of pumping reductions and the management frameworks that facilitate such reductions. These two elements are helping to chart more positive paths forward for the High Plains aquifer in Kansas.
Image: Fields in Kansas watered from the Ogallala Aquifer with center pivot irrigation systems - NASA ASTER
Jim Butler is a Senior Scientist with the Geohydrology Section of the Kansas Geological Survey (KGS), a research and service unit of the University of Kansas. He holds a BS in Geology from the College of William and Mary and an MS and PhD in Applied Hydrogeology from Stanford University. For the last fifteen years, he has led KGS research directed at charting more positive paths forward for the High Plains aquifer in Kansas. Butler was the 2020 recipient of the M. King Hubbert Award of the National Ground Water Association for his contributions to groundwater hydrology.