The aquifer that sustains eastern New Mexico agriculture is thinning out (actually as expected, in line with old predictions that by mid-century it would be in perilous shape). If the aquifer goes, what happens next? Dust Bowl II, except this time without the dust? Depopulation, like the Dakotas have seen recently? Ghost towns of the high plains? What a strange future awaits!:
... Such was the case with a recent article from the Portales News-Tribune, located in eastern New Mexico's Roosevelt County, home of 80,000 dairy cattle. Hydro-geologist Amy Ewing reported at a public meeting (attended by exactly nine people) that the Ogallala Aquifer, upon which the area depends for its water, will be at an all-time low by 2020. Over the last 60 years, reported Ewing, the water table has dropped from about 18 feet below ground to 110 feet. When the saturation thickness of the aquifer's water (the amount of water from the aquifer's bottom to its top) reaches 30 feet, it becomes essentially undrinkable. According to Portales Mayor Orlando Ortega, Jr., "there are already areas in [Roosevelt] county where the saturation thickness ... is less than 40 feet." Ewing concluded by saying, "water levels are falling, and they are not going back up."
Who's the culprit? Ewing said irrigation agriculture (this includes dairies and the neighboring cheese plant) is responsible for most of the area's water usage. So that means the dairy industry's growth will be curtailed and forced to conserve water, right? Not according to the News-Tribune story. There are no plans at present to require irrigation farmers to conserve water or to even meter how much they use. If conservation is mandated, it will apparently fall on the backs of homeowners and non-agricultural businesses. The issue was summed up Irene Jones, a member of a Roosevelt County farming family: "The bottom line is the water will run out .... The land is not sustainable as cropland."
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