Tag: irrigation
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Drought Forces Hard Choices for Farmers and Ranchers in the Southwest
Large reservoirs have buffered urban areas in the Southwest from the worst of the year’s dry conditions, but rural farmers and ranchers are bearing the brunt of water shortages and the economic fallout. CHESTER, Utah – It’s only the beginning of August – typically the height of the farming season – but the irrigation ponds…
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Farmers drawing groundwater from Ogallala Aquifer faster than nature replaces it
Every summer the U.S. Central Plains go dry, leading farmers to tap into groundwater to irrigate sorghum, soy, cotton, wheat and corn and maintain large herds of cattle and hogs. As the heat rises, anxious irrigators gather to discuss whether and how they should adopt more stringent conservation measures. They know that if they do…
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Paper presents changes in Ogallala Aquifer groundwater quality
In a new paper published by the Texas Water Journal (TWJ), a group of researchers for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS), found that the quality of water being extracted from the Ogallala Aquifer changes in complex and unpredictable ways. “In some cases, water quality declined and in others water quality…
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The Water Wars of Arizona
Homes in the Sulphur Springs Valley in Arizona stand just outside a corn field with a large irrigation system. Photo credit: Lucas Foglia for The New York Times Early one morning in July 2014, Lori Paup awoke in her new home in the Sulphur Springs Valley of Arizona and began unpacking boxes of clothes, hanging…
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Sinking land, poisoned water: the dark side of California’s mega farms
Farm fields along the path of the California aqueduct in the Central Valley, a region that produces a quarter of the nation’s food. Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters The floor of the Central Valley is slumping, and there is arsenic in the tap water. Now it seems the two problems are connected Isabel Solorio can see the…
