It only takes one word to get the attention of farmers in western Kansas: water.
In between the small towns in this region, water can’t always be seen, but the life it brings can be heard all around: the hum of pumps spraying it on corn, cattle shuffling around feedyards or residents pouring a glass to drink.
But farmers are in a tough spot. The state is asking them to slow the decline of the source of this hidden water – the Ogallala aquifer, which supports most of the economy and towns in western Kansas.
In drought years, this area can get as little rain as Phoenix, Arizona. In this dusty, semi-arid region, water scarcity dominates the minds of the people who depend on irrigation for their crops and their livelihoods.
The region relies on irrigation for agriculture, but after 70 years of pumping, that water source is starting to come up dry, causing concern.
“In southwest Kansas in general, it's amplified, right? This resource really created this area, it was a very small area, and it has boomed through the development of the aquifer,” said Bret Rooney, a farmer in Haskell County.
Some farmers are now taking action. In Sublette, Kansas, with a population around 1,000, more than 100 farmers recently crammed into a room to discuss not just the future of water resources in western Kansas, but also their own futures.
It’s been an ongoing debate over how this area will approach the depletion of the Ogallala aquifer. And now, the state of Kansas wants action from the groundwater management districts that cover western Kansas.
New state law requirements
A new state law requires all five groundwater management districts, or GMDs, in Kansas to submit an action plan for addressing groundwater declines to state officials by July 1, 2026. If that deadline is ignored, or if an action plan isn’t approved, the state will step in for the first time with its own action plan.
Speaking to the group of farmers in Sublette, Rooney was blunt in his assessment of the situation.
“We've got a choice to either come together, figure out a solution, work on things, do things like we're doing today … or someone from Topeka or Manhattan is going to tell us how we're going to do it,” Rooney said.
GMD 3, the largest of the districts, covers all of southwest Kansas. Groundwater is depleting fastest there due to irrigation of crops like corn, wheat or alfalfa, a multibillion-dollar industry for the state.
Officials say some areas only have approximately 50 years of water left before reaching the minimum threshold. And unlike a few other GMDs, this district hasn’t made as many strides to conserve water.
Many farmers still question the logistics of supporting agriculture and simultaneously conserving water: What should we do in a perpetual drought? Will there be any protection? What if I have already been conserving water? Do I have to conserve even more? What if my neighbor doesn’t conserve any?
Most farmers said they want flexibility and guardrails in place before their action plans are submitted.
Planning for the future
Brownie Wilson, of the Kansas Geological Survey, presented to the group some data about water being pumped in western Kansas, where crop irrigation accounts for 95% of all water use.
“Across the world, people really have no idea how much water comes out of the ground, so Kansas is really unique in that aspect. We have a lot of water data,” Wilson said.
Many farmers asked Wilson if someone else will use their water if they don’t.
“It's not going to flow down to Wichita, it's not going to pump out over to Oklahoma,” Wilson said. “The water conserved is here to stay.”
Wilson demonstrated tools like model simulations available for farm operations. These simulations can tell farmers, based on average rainfalls and aquifer recharge levels, how much irrigation they would need to cut to stabilize their portion of the aquifer.
“It’s a possibility, and then we can run this model out in the future, and we're getting 30 feet, in some cases, of additional water based on the savings that we do,” Wilson said.
Farmers and agriculture leaders will hold several more discussions next year to help them prepare for action in response to the law.
Calen Moore covers western Kansas for High Plains Public Radio and the Kansas News Service. You can email him at cmoore@hppr.org.
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