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so critica! in many local areas, that a
dangerous drop in the underground
water tables has resulted, a fact few
people realize.
Underground Water Supply Failing
Take the Texas Panhandle, one hard
hit area, for example. It uses the normal
but scanty raiofall for dry-land wheat
and other farming. However,
mpple–
mmlal u'ater m11st be drafted from
tmdergro11t1d supplies.
" lrrigation has been the dominant
factor in the agricultura} expansion of
the area,'' states an Agricultura!
Research Service bulletin, published by
USDA's Southwestern Great Plains
Research Station and Texas A
&
M
University. The bulletin states further,
"The predominant source of water, the
grotmd tua/er
of the Ogallala forma–
tion, is being used much faster than it is
being replenished by natural recharge."
This aspect of drought - rapidly
dropping water tables - is as critica! as
lack of rain. In sorne areas crops must
be planted to utilize both irrigation and
rainfall to greatest efficiency.
Ultimately, farmers will have to
"change their thinking to give rainfall
first priority, irrigation second,'' says
Dr. B. A. Stewart, Director of the
Southwestern Great Plains Research
Center near Amarillo, Texas. Eventually
the vast underground storage of water
will give out. When this water is used
up, this great agricultura! area may well
revert to semi-arid desert.
"Mining" water - as it's called
when underground storage is pumped
faster than natural recharge - is like
spending your savings, Fred Kunkel,
U. S. Geological Survey Hydrologist
told PLAIN TRUTH reportees recently.
"Eventually one must learn to live on
current income, because savings will
finally run out,'' he explained.
The Texas High Plains found them·
selves blessed with a tremendous
"inheritance" of underground water,
but only a moderate "income." Yet,
farmers there are "spending" water in a
period of few decades that took hun–
dreds of years to accumulate. Even·
tually, as in any continued mining
operation, the mines give out and the
miners no longer have a source of in·
come. "Water mining" ís no exception.
The
PLAIN TRUTH
Effects of South Texas Drought
Yet the pressure of drought condi–
tions is forcing farmers to "mine
water." Near San Antonio, Texas,
dry·
lancl farms - that is, farms dependent
on raínfall alone - were planted late íf
at all, in 1971. Here, too, farmers have
turned to more productive irrigation
farming, pumping water from finite
underground reserves. With the pres–
sures of drought, wells have gone dry,
or have necessarily been drilled deeper
- sorne as much as 600 to 2000 feet
deep. Costs for pumping water from
those depths also cut deep into farmers'
profits.
Local ranchers also reported the
serious conditions of their grazing
lands.
"This past eight or nine months (late
1970 through
]une
1971) is worse
than anybody can remember for any cor–
responding periocl before," commented
ex-rancher Johnny Hinnart, who lives
near San Antonio. "Sorne ranchers have
sold their herds down to 20% or 40%.
In my case,
1
was clown to 25% and
getting ready to ship them even though
my lease hadn't expired," he continued.
North, in the Red Ri ver region of
southwestern Oklahoma and north cen–
tral Texas, farms and reservoirs were hit
hard. Dry-land wheat farms produced
practically nothing. Jrrigation water was
rationecl in sorne areas, and Oklahoma's
overall wheat harvest was clown a full
third, mostly due to drought. For a
time, the Red River flow was recluced to
little more than a trickle.
What cloes the future hold for the
area? Sorne drought stricken areas have
received rain. Too often, however,
people assume that one quick rain is
enough to break a drought. Unfortu·
nately this is
far
from fact.
When Is a Drought Broken?
It
takes sustained rain over a long
period of time to break a deep drought.
Wayne Palmer, a U. S. Weather Service
meteorologist, invented an index to cal–
culate drought severity and thereby de·
termine how much rainfall is needed to
end a drought. By Palmer's method, a
climatologist can determine drought
conditions even during a
lhmzderstorm.
lt's possible for ao area to be
November 197 1
drenched in a 4-inch rainstorm and still
be gripped with drougbt.
This happened during 1971 in Flor·
ida and in southwestem Oklahoma,
where floocls of rain poured clown on
clrought-stricken lands. "Understanding
drought severity requires understanding
of the various factors of soil moisture,
temperature, crop needs, normal rainfall
for the area and other related factors.
No one 4-inch torrent is enough to re·
lieve a drought that's entrenched by
months of dry weather," Palmer told a
PLAJN TRUTH reportee.
Droughts are clearly not a matter of
quantity of water
on/y.
Tin1ing, dis·
tributioo, "rain in due season," storage,
and
r¡~tality
are equally as important.
WiU
D rought Worsen?
What does the decade of the 1970's
hold for the Southwest - and else·
where? Will droughts continue to
spreacl, engulfing greater and greater
areas of land? Will saddeniog migra·
tions away from the land, such as those
of the 1930's, be repeated as a result of
the ravages of drought?
Sorne authorities feel the present
drought has just begun. "We feel this
drought is not over. Jt will probably
peak about 1975 to 1978, with ínter·
mittent relief during the years in
between," stated
Mr.
Paul Caubin of
Krick Associates, Inc., in a recent
ioterview.
If
this comes to pass, United States
agriculture will be in deep trouble.
Drought conditions in 1971 were not
exactly pleasant. Consider then, a drought
for
follr to seveu
years - getting worse
year by year. Such a possible drought
spectre should strike fear ioto the hearts
of Americans.
The official National Weather Service
position is different. It insists that we
have no way of knowing if the clrought
will continue. Yet sorne of its own
meteorologists state privately that they
believe the current drought will spread
and worsen. "Educated guesses" are
sometimes right, whereas "official posi·
tions" may cloud the issue. Whoever is
right, the best situation for the coming
years is barely reassuring, and the
worst visions are of an apocalyptic
nightmare. O